CAREER COUNSELING KIDS GET LESSONS IN BEING ADULTS.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - Seventh-grader Delia Nazario says her mom needs to bring home the bacon, and she doesn't mind if that means she's left to care for her 5-year-old sister after school.

``Just make money,'' the 12-year-old says to her mother.

Delia's awareness about finances awakened this year with a business math class in which salary negotiations, investments and spreadsheets take center stage.

Money weighed on her mind again Thursday after she and others at La Mesa Junior High School attended a presentation on finances - one of four information sessions held at the school to get kids thinking about careers and their futures.

Some educators say that for too long, schools have strayed from teaching about savings accounts and mutual funds, and that career planning begins far too late.

Overall, they say, this leaves some lost after graduation, because students are unprepared for adult life when it comes to finding jobs or managing money.

But by exposing children earlier to the business world and by wedging some business classes between English composition and chemistry, educators hope this will change.

``The problem today is that we are emphasizing too much on academics - not that we shouldn't do that - but we're not preparing them for life,'' said La Mesa business math teacher Jeffrey Aronsky.

Aronsky said there are too many kids who can pass state exams yet can't make change for a dollar. He has heard this same complaint from associates in the business community who are scratching their heads about young hires who don't know how to function in an office, from answering phones professionally to reading spreadsheets.

In his class, students learn keyboarding, computers and financial literacy, including an assignment on investments and the stock market. He says the class needs to start earlier in schools and recommended the kindergarten level.

``People that understand money will control the economy and make decisions for you and your family,'' said Arif M. Halaby, president of Total Financial Solutions, a Newhall-based financial group.

Standing before about 70 junior high students, Halaby recommended that they save 25 percent of their income, whether from mowing lawns or baby sitting, and to put that money to work for them.

He told students that some people work all their lives and make millions over time but retire with hardly anything because they never learned how to save and invest.

The message hit home with 13-year-old Trevon Williams, whose eyes widened when he later talked about putting money in the bank and ending up with more 10 years later.

``I didn't realize interest could help you so much,'' the eighth-grade student said.

Aside from finances, Thursday's presentations focused on interviewing and careers in technical and animal fields.

These sessions, presented through the William S. Hart Union High School District's WorkAbility Program, were at one time available only to high school students, said Jan Weber, district career transition adviser.

The program's focus was extended to the junior high level after it was discovered that some high school students didn't know what to do with their lives after graduation, she said.

``The whole idea is to get kids ready for the working world,'' she said.

Still, kids will be kids.

After a 50-minute session about careers in robotics, 12-year-old Nicholas Ma said he'd like to work in the field. He listened hard as the discussion focused on how robots help in the medical field, law enforcement and entertainment.

So what kind of robot would he create?

``I'd like to make a robot that could be the perfect friend,'' he said.

Sue Doyle, [phone]

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Stan Jacobson, a robotics professor at College of the Canyons, speaks to students at La Mesa Junior High on Thursday as part of the Hart school district's WorkAbility Program.

(2) La Mesa Junior High School students listen Thursday to speakers discuss different careers available to them, part of a district program to raise career and finance awareness among kids.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer