Children: Tinker, tailor, palaeontologist or hairdresser?: At six, most little boys want to be footballers, girls to be teachers or nurses. Deborah Holder asks what influences children's ambitions

EVER see the Granada documentary series Seven Up? It started in 1963, following the lives of a group of children. We meet them first as wide- eyed seven-year-olds and catch up with them at seven-year intervals: giggling 14-years-olds, earnest 21- year-olds and, most recently, in 1991, fully formed adults.

Some stories are inspiring, others tragic, but what is striking in almost all cases is the extent to which the programme's opening line is borne out - 'give me a boy until he is seven and I will give you the man'.

Take Tony, the chirpy cockney rascal who says he wants to become a jockey or a taxi driver and goes on to do both; Nicholas, the only child in his village in the Yorkshire Dales, who says: 'I'd like to find out all about the moon' and goes on to become a rocket scientist; or sweet, soft-spoken Bruce who wants to go to Africa to 'try and teach people who aren't civilised to be more or less good', and ends up teaching in India, then in a tough comprehensive in the East End - not a million miles away from missionary work.

Occasionally, the restraints of social class and gender make for depressing inevitability. Like the three young toffs speaking from their pre-prep school in Kensington with their futures mapped out, or Paul in his children's home dorm asking with heartbreaking innocence, 'what does university mean?'.

But if all cases had been this predictable it would have made for far less interesting viewing. It was the children whose background did not prepare the way for their aspirations that made it fascinating. Where did their ideas come from about what they wanted to do when they grew up? Are children influenced by

what their parents do, television or teachers? How great is the impact of a single, inspirational event?

Many film directors, including Steven Spielberg, cite an early visit to the local cinema as an awe-inspiring turning point in their lives. In a recent television interview, Cilla Black

recalled being hoisted on to a kitchen table to sing as a small child, getting her first round of applause and knowing that was what she wanted to do. For James Hunt inspiration came after being taken to a race for an 18th-birthday treat.

Although there is a great deal of evidence that certain factors such as gender, race and class restrict horizons and opportunities, there has been remarkably little research into what positively influences a child

to develop particular hopes and dreams. While a child is most likely to choose from the range of things it perceives to be possible and appropriate to its sex, race or class, people do break free from their backgrounds to prove that individual aspirations can transcend social barriers. Who could have guessed where a certain grocer's daughter from Grantham would end up?

Clearly, negative and positive influences are ways of approaching the same point from opposite directions and there is a lot of overlap. The area that seems to have attracted the most research is the impact of gender on life choices and career choices, and the results make depressing reading.

A study by Julie Blackwell for the Durham Business and Education Executive questioned six- and 10-year- olds. She found that 70 per cent of six-year-old boys wanted to be sportsmen, especially footballers. This rose to 85 per cent by 10 years old. As for the girls, 40 per cent of the six-year-olds wanted to be nurses and 30 per cent teachers, and at 10 years of age roughly one-third wanted to be teachers and the others were torn between air hostessing and hairdressing. In the face of continuing sex-role stereotyping it's hard to imagine girls dreaming of a life fighting fires or boys a life in the ballet - although some do.

Dr Margaret McAllister, an educational psychologist, confirms that gender is a key factor from a surprisingly early age. Other core influences tend to be parents, and the cultural norms of the neighbourhood and wider society. 'When children first become aware of work their early choices are unrealistic,' says McAllister, 'but increasing age brings awareness of social status and choices become more stable.' Children turn to key role models for

inspiration: 'If we look at imaginative play, it's very common that children play at mums and dads, then once at school, teaching becomes a big choice - they've identified with a model that is powerful, in control and kind.'

Children sometimes come across other role models by accident at a time when they are particularly receptive. Anna, 31, now a writer, was hit by a car when she was 11. 'I just fell in love with this nurse on the children's ward. She had dark hair in a bun and a crisp white uniform. I just thought she was the kindest, most beautiful person I'd ever met. It happened so long ago but I still remember her name now.

'All the children loved her, which seemed a wonderful position to be in. When I was confused about what to do with my life a few years later and the careers adviser suggested nursing I leapt at it. I went through with the interviews and was given a place to train at the Royal Free. Thank God I never took it up. I would have made a diabolical nurse.'

Social class is another factor. 'The upper classes identify with certain occupations of family and friends,' McAllister says, explaining the continuation of certain professions such as doctor, lawyer, teacher through the generations. 'But,' she adds, 'sometimes it can make for diametrically opposite choice.' Richard, a 38-year-old social worker, struggled to escape from the pressure of his family's profession. 'My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all headmasters and the assumption was that I would carry on the tradition. The pressure to do well from a young age was horrendous and I knew from maybe eight or nine that I would have to let my father down eventually.'

'Sometimes parents feel threatened if their child chooses a job with a lower socio-economic status than their own,' McAllister says, 'as it may reflect badly on them. Although most youngsters wish for jobs with higher status than their parents'.' This can also be problematic. 'My parents are very working class,' says Mike, a 25-year-old PhD student, 'and although they encouraged me in theory, they found it very threatening when I actually did go off and get an education, especially my dad. The cost of 'bettering myself' was alienating myself from my family.'

At a later age children are more likely to turn to established sources of information on careers and to make more rational, less intuitive choices. Research by PhD student Pauline Lightbody reveals something of the comparative influence parents and teachers. The huge majority of sixth-year students said their parents would encourage them if they chose non-traditional subjects and named parents as the most important influence on their choice of subjects, with teachers in second place and (for boys only) friends in third.

Other factors included 'official' advice such as career booklets; who else was in the class (boys were more influenced by the balance of boys versus girls, who was teaching the subject and whether their friends were taking it); informal advice from friends and family (which girls rated more highly); 'intrinsic' satisfaction (also more important to girls); and whether the subject was likely to be instrumental in getting a job (which was more important to boys).

Most research suggests that teachers try to change children to fit into whatever pigeonhole they have identified for them whereas parents are more likely to encourage the individual child in whatever direction they choose. Of course there are outstanding teachers who bring out the best in the child, but they are a rarity. This isn't as hard on teachers as it may seem, as the whole system within which they operate seems to militate against individual development.

John Raven is a consultant psychologist who has written extensively on the subject. He feels the education system fails in its main goal of nurturing qualities such as initiative, the ability to work with others and the ability to understand and influence social processes - the very qualities which would allow and encourage children to make bold, creative and unrestricted choices about what they want to do with their lives. Raven calls these skills competencies and to nurture them schools would have to create individual development programmes based on individual pupils' needs, talents and values.

The reason this does not happen is not simply a problem of resources, although this is undoubtedly a factor. Schools have always been geared towards exams and therefore concentrate on skills that are easily testable. Recent education policy is moving farther in that direction. If schools aren't influencing children's life choices it's because they aren't preparing kids for life but for exams, says Raven.

Another problem is the value accorded to skills which aren't directly academic. Teaching children to become independent and adventurous thinkers, able to challenge authority and ask questions, is seen by some as a threatening prospect. 'What is being said,' writes Raven, 'is not that these qualities are unimportant but that they are too important.'

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK: WHERE DO THE ASPIRATIONS COME FROM?

ELLIE AND LEWIS

Ellie is 16, her brother Lewis 13. Their father is a freelance advertising copywriter, their mother edits children's books. Both parents often work from home.

ELLIE: I wanted to be an air hostess when I was very young but when you see how plastic they are . . . I also wanted to be a graphic designer because a cool friend of my parents was one. Then I did CD Tech at school and realised it wasn't what I thought it would be.

I want to do A-levels and go in the direction of art or English. I wouldn't mind being an ideas person in a big firm. I like thinking up ideas and seeing how they work. Or maybe music - but on the managerial side. I like organising. I also saw a programme about genetic engineering and got quite interested. I talked to my biology teacher about it.

Seeing my parents work at home is good because you learn about it, but sometimes I can also see they're getting bored - that it's just like school.

LEWIS: I really like English and history, especially natural history. I'd like to be a palaeontologist. I saw a programme about people who go on the road on digs. I've been interested in dinosaurs since a young age and I'd like to study fossils.

I also like writing and I quite like the notion of advertising - the idea of making things, seeing them being developed and being able to say afterwards 'I did that.'

CHARLIE

Charlie, 38, is a psychologist specialising in child development.

CHARLIE: My father's father was a portrait painter - snooker and painting were his great interests, probably in that order. My father was taken at seven to a medical museum by his chain-smoking grandfather, who wanted to teach him a lesson about what smoking can do to the body, and he knew then that he wanted to become a doctor - and he did.

I think two things influenced me. My mother decided to have a fifth child - I was the fourth - so I spent a lot of my 11th, 12th and 13th years looking after a baby. Then someone suggested I go and work with CP (cerebral palsy) kids when I was 15 and then I was hooked.

I have a 10-year-old son who wants to be a footballer and a six-year-old daughter who wants to be an artist or a doctor.

MARY, JAMES, BEN AND LUCY

Mary, 39, is a probation officer and mother of James, who is 12, Ben, aged 11, and seven- year-old Lucy.

MARY: I'm one of seven children. My dad was a printer and my mum taught needlework after she'd had kids. My brothers and sisters are almost all in socially oriented jobs - housing development worker, union convener, lecturer in the social services, another probation officer and a housing officer. Two other sisters started out as nurses. I think I always wanted to be a social worker but I didn't know what it was.

I don't know why we've ended up in the same sort of work. It may be a common sense of injustice and wanting to sort things out. There was a sense of not belonging - we were brought up on a council estate and were Catholics, a minority, and there were loads of us. I didn't fit in at school. I had passed my 11-plus and ended up in a posh school. My mum saw education as the way out. She had aspirations for us through education, it alienated us a bit. Now, I think she's proud of our success.

Maybe this type of job is the acceptable face of success. You can't go all out for capitalist success. You have to justify your roots. With our skills we could have gone for something else but not one of us has.

LUCY: Maths is my best subject. I like technology, art, music. I could be a cartoonist.

BEN: My dad's a carpenter and I'm no good at carpentry and my mum gets really stressed so I wouldn't want to do that. I'm good at maths and I like football. Maybe I'd like to be a football player.

JAMES: I like maths, sport and geography. I'd like to work with computers in a big company. Big organisations are safer.

(Photograph omitted)