Everything I create for this website is based on my experience of educating my son. At times, I have been able to find excellent online resources. But almost all of them took the pay-per-use/ subscription route as soon as learning went remote. Left to my own devices, I have been relentless in researching and locating the perfect resources for my son. Every time I fail, I create my own. One such pursuit has been flashcards for different professions. I have found many with a picture and the name of the profession but none describing the job. Also, I have always found them to be gender biased. Hence, I simply went ahead and developed my own that has the name of the profession (conventional one), a picture (visual cue) and a short phrase describing the job.
The world is constantly changing, the youth are rewriting the rules of social hierarchy and rejecting gender stereotypes. When I was googling for an image for 'advocate' (a professional lawyer), my search resulted in pictures of people holding up placards and protesting. It reminded me that advocacy in today's world goes much beyond the world of courts and lawyers. Hence, I stuck to the term 'lawyer' for the flashcard. Later, when I typed in writer, I found pictures of bloggers and script writers. Its true that the conventional definitions of every job we know is evolving. I again revised the profession to simply 'author'. But this process taught me that in today's world the definitions of profession, vocation and passion are overlapping and rightfully so.
For this pack, I have tried to include pictures of professionals contrary to the conventional gender bias. Some jobs that I think are very relevant in today's world have also made it to the list like that of a dancer, musician, chef, artist and baker. Also included in the list is home-maker, a job I would like kids to be acquainted with, so that when asked they can proudly state that their mom (or dad) is one.
