Entertaining other people’s daughters and sons at work

Thursday was the 15th anniversary of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day. There were a lot of kids in the agency.

Coincidentally I hosted a seminar on digital communications at the office Thursday for a group of 11 7th graders from Brooklyn (one of my agency’s pro-bono initiatives). I don’t really relate to kids, so it’s a little bizarre that I wound up being the ringleader of this event.

The kids were very inquisitive and very sharp. We were talking about storytelling, and one of my co-workers asked the students what sort of stories they liked. One of the students clarified, “You mean, what genres we prefer?” Damn.

Luckily, the kids were also pretty well-behaved, but it takes a great dealof energy and patience to keep up with a room full of 12-year olds. I have a newfound respect for my mother, who’s been teaching middle school for about 30 years.