What are you going to be? A doctor or a businessman? Or an engineer?

That’s the common question concerning children that almost every parent is familiar with, whether the question is addressed to them or not, but the reality of the answer can be far different from what they expect.

Some, if not many parents, especially fathers, frequently lay down the law in regard to the field of study their child chooses.

A case in point is Julia, not her real name, who experienced this when it come to the field of study that she wanted to choose several years ago. Her father forced her to take law and she had to obey him or else he would get angry.

Because she had no interest in the law, she changed it secretly to a course on international relations that she had a passion for. “My father did not know it until my graduation ceremony. He was really surprised at the reality. Luckily, he did not get angry and accepted the reality,” she said, recollecting.

Julia’s case may have reflected her father’s care for his daughter’s academic future but the question is what did he take into consideration in forcing his daughter to choose law? Only Julia’s father knows the answer.

Like Julia’s father, who laid down the law in regard to the field of study that his daughter should choose, Hardi, not his real name, a father-of-two, also wanted his son and daughter to obey him but based his considerations on the results of psychological tests that his two children took in every phase of development, starting from pre-school until before the crucial educational phase: choosing the field of study at the university level.

Hardi acknowledged that he frequently engaged in conversations with psychologists in regard to his children’s education, which, he said, allowed him to be aware that “intelligence” covers many aspects including personal, interpersonal, emotional, linguistic, adversity, motor and intellectual skills.

He provided his two children with many different kinds of books and applied his knowledge to deal with his children’s education, “I had my children take an aptitude test every two years when they attended elementary school and more frequently when they entered junior and senior school so that when the time came to choose the field of study, they chose correctly based on their talents and interests,” he said.

If his children had never taken the psychological tests, it is possible that their talents and interest would not have connected with each other. “There is a case in which a child attended a field of study only based on his interest and consequently, he just became an ‘ordinary’ student at school, not outstanding at all,” he says.

Learning the results of the aptitude tests was crucial because based on the results he could “create programs that enabled my two children to develop particular aspects that stood out before entering university life”, he says.

“For example, my son stood out in numerical and kinesthetic aspects and so he practiced karate since he was at junior high school and he made great achievements in self-defense,” he notes.

He said that his daughter was outstanding in numerical and aesthetic aspects and so “based on my will, she took traditional dance and music courses”.

Based on the efforts he made, including having his two children take aptitude tests on a regular basis, his two children made achievements in every level of study, from kindergarten and elementary to high school and university. Both his children graduated from prestigious universities and graduated cum laude.

As a parent, he took full control throughout his children’s development and studies as he consistently accompanied them in the role of a parent, facilitator, motivator and inspirer.

Hardi’s children, who have achieved academic success, represent the small number of students who have chosen their fields of study based on their talents and interests.

A study by the Indonesian Career Center Network in 2017 shows that about 87 percent of Indonesian students choose fields of study that do not correspond with their talents. “This may potentially lead the students concerned to face difficulties in completing their studies according to their targeted time and in achieving the maximal results in their studies,” it says.

Clinical and forensic psychologist Kasandra Putranto says that it is better for students to have psychological checks by competent psychologists. “I think it is crucial to understand the talents and interests that students have from an early period to allow them to develop and grow maximally,” she says.

According to her, the preparatory process of developing children’s interest and ambition could start at 5 years of age and the examination at age 17.

“The important thing is parents should not just think ‘we know’ but also cultivate their children’s interests by experiencing various kinds of expertise from an early age,” she says.

What your children are going to be can partly be answered by having your children take aptitude tests, just like Hardi’s children did.

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