When did kids stop dreaming?

So there wasn't a whole lot new or unusual to report today.  I got my cubicle wall so now I have a little more privacy as well as space to hang stuff up.  I did some counseling and got some paperwork done.

I met with this one student who doesn't have counseling in their IEP but there have been reports about problems with this student.  Inattention, making noises in class, not completing work.  So I was talking with the kid to find out his take on how things are going and the reasons.  While talking to the student, I asked what they wanted to do when they grow up.  The response: I don't know.

I starting to find this to be a disturbing trend.  While I don't think my upbringing was typical (I had more than my share of loss in my early years), I'd like to think that I was typical at the same age for ideas of wanting to be something when I grew up.  Astronaut, firefighter, policeman, a Duke of Hazzard, whatever.  But the thing is: I wanted to be something.

I'm finding more and more kids that don't have any idea whatsoever.  Is it a part of upbringing?  Is it a sense of hopelessness?  Does it have to do with not having a sense that you can be something?  If it is, is that a product of the family environment?  A product of the economy?

When the most recent recession started, there was an increase in referrals for risk assessments in my district.  A large number of them were in the school in which I'm now stationed.  I don't know if there is any correlation.

So I went home tonight and asked my child, who is three, what he wanted to be when he grows up.  I hope I can engender some idea that he can be something when he grows up and that it is okay to dream.