The Scoop APRIL 2017 | Page 25

In the U.S., something special occurs on the fourth Thursday in April every year. In the Canadian province of Ontario, it occurs on the 1st Wednesday of November. In Sydney, Melbourne; and Brisbane, Australia; it occurs on January 5th. Thursday, April 27th is Take Our Daughter and Sons to Work Day. This day is part of a non-profit educational program in the United States, Canada, and Australia that involves parents taking their children to work for a day. The program encourages parents and employees to not just bring their own children, but bring children from shelters or residential programs who normally do not get the opportunity to be exposed and experience what it is like in a professional career setting.

When it was originally created, it was known as Take Our Daughters To Work Day, as it only extended to young girls; but in starting in 2003, the day included boys. Before 2003, the program was designed to specifically address self-esteem issues unique to girls at the time. Excluding the boys put a lot of pressure on the teachers who didn’t want to include the event in their curriculum seeing that their male students were not encouraged to participate in the program.

Ms. Foundation for Women created Take Our Daughters To Work Day in New York in 1992. The first event took place on April 22nd in 1993 and has ever since been celebrated on the fourth Thursday of April. The day is generally scheduled on a day when most children in the United States have school. On this day teachers are given the materials to allow career exploration and discussion about careers into the lessons on the day before or after the event. Although not officially extended to boys until 2003, most companies and businesses that participated had already been allowing both boys and girls to partake in the experience and usually renaming it to, Take Our Children To Work Day.

In the United States, we continue to celebrate this event, although not many schools continue to take part in it. Generally schools hold other events in place for students to gain knowledge on the different work fields and be able to talk to people who work in them, such as Career Day.

Have you ever partaken in Take Our Daughter and Sons to Work Day?

Nicole Stetsyuk