'What do You Want to Become?' By Bint Akram
“Everyone wants to make enough money to live comfortably, but what does this mean? Should one aim to make millions? Or is this a questionable aim for a moral life? Should one aim at a profession in order to achieve high status? ... The big question: What kind of work will contribute to my becoming a whole person and also contribute to my community...?” - Nel Noddings, Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Might Teach but Do Not (2006) Not an unfamiliar scenario: An adult asks a small child, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’ The child looks at his interlocutor confusedly. He is immediately given his options, ‘Engineer, doctor, pilot…’ and the clichéd list would go on to bog the child down with the weighty responsibility of either ‘becoming’ any of these or remain a ‘good-for-nothing’ all his life. If only we could control our formative influences, life would be so much better! If only… Dreams and Desires ‘Dreaming Big’ is the slogan of the modern day world. We ‘...