My oldest son is in Grade 9 so he was eligible to participate. Seeing as I work in an medium size office building in the Information Systems Dept, I figured there would be plenty to show him. Most of my day is devoted to word processing so I chose not to have him sit there and watch me at the computer. In preparation for the event, I spoke with my co-workers and arranged for them to "entertain" him for short spells, just for variety. One fellow showed him the computer server room, another taught him how to look up information I needed from a database. The security officer showed him film from the security cameras at our branch locations. When a fraud alert was transmitted on the email, he was extremely curious. We looked at some of the archived alerts and went into a long discussion on the various ways people try to defraud banks. I was surprised he grasped some of the concepts!
Of course I took him out to lunch and that was nice to spend some quality time with my son alone, without having his brothers or friends around. Although my workday is longer than his school day, he said the time went much quicker than it does at school. We fought rush hour traffic on the way home and he gained an appreciation of why I need some time to unwind when I get home.
What did my son learn from this? He finally saw an environment he's never seen before. Very different than being in school. He was impressed with the knowlege and professionalism of the employees in my office. He saw the importance of having an education and training in order to do a job. Like many students, he goes to school and never sees the results or practical application of his education.
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