Powerpoint presentations for five year olds – what next?  

Coming into the office this week I mentioned to colleagues that my five year old son had been given a school assignment to complete over Easter. He has to create a Powerpoint presentation covering a topic of his interest – he can include pictures, music, graphs and artefacts to name but a few things. He will have to present the Powerpoint to the rest of his class with the best ones being uploaded onto the school website.  In fairness he is actually quite excited about the project and can’t decide on the subject matter

What this really means is that my husband and I and every other parent at the school will be spending significant parts of OUR Easter holidays testing OUR Powerpoint skills against one another for the pride and status of our children as decent Powerpoint creativity is well beyond the IT skills of most 5 year olds – and most parents if they have a laptop with it loaded.

The subject generated heated opinion in the office, with some colleagues thinking that this is not the best use of either a parent’s time or that of a five year old in the holidays, and suggesting that, at this age, it would it be better if he was reading or kicking a ball and being a child. Others added that this was a ridiculous example that we were now a nation that spends far too much time on its obsession with Powerpoint and presentation.

Being the person that will create the presentation, with input from him (after all mum can’t do everything and he has to actually read what I’ve written) I am already thinking about what to include, how many slides to have, which pictures to show and whether I should include a video clip – in fact my mind is well and truly in overdrive.

Having worked for a b2b and consumer PR agency for several years now and prepared more than a few presentations during my time I really shouldn’t be as nervous as I am but I can honestly say I have never created a presentation for such a young and unpredictable audience who are very likely to speak the truth if they find it dull or even, heaven forbid, boring.

I am sure he will want me to include everything and only this morning was asking me to remember to take pictures of X, Y and Z that MUST be added. One colleague’s final comment was not to be ‘too heavy handed’ with the content. Now I’m even more worried than before.

Isn’t it sad that the supposedly enjoyable, small, simple elements of life such as a 5 year old’s school talk become nearly as much of an issue as a presentation to the Board?