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Are parents justified in pressuring their teenage children to get a college education?
Are parents justified in pressuring their teenage children to get a college education?
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| Yes | 67% | 287 votes | Total: 429 votes | |
| No | 33% | 142 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesTeenagers are stupid sometimes. I would know; I am one. I will admit it, my brain is scientifically not fully developed and sometimes I have been known to make stupid decisions. And when considering my future, the last thing that this senioritis-plagued soon-to-be high school graduate wants to do is go to school for an additional four or more years. For a normal high school teenager, "furthering my education" is the last phrase on my mind. More common phrases include "parties," "boyfriend/girlfrien d," and "freedom." What my peers and I would not give to somehow be able to lounge around all day, watching TV and eating junk food!
But, for better or for worse, I have a couple of adults in my life just waiting around to crush all my dreams: The parents. Good ol' mom and dad have been saving up for my college education since they decided what name to put on the savings account, I had a Harvard baby t-shirt on when I went home from the hospital, and the people that brought me into this world are excited and willing to help me in any way possible to get me out there and further my education. Why? Because they were teenagers once too, and I think they are still familiar with the feeling of wanting to be free and exert every right possible of living on their own. But in some ways, my parents had to learn the hard way that it was not all it was jazzed up to be, and they see much of their own personalities in mine. They do not want me to fall into the same trap that they did; they want for me the success that they wanted but never got.
What would happen if they just let me stay at home with them and paid for all my rent, food, and bills for the rest of my life? If I wanted to get married, I would not know how to manage my new family's finances and it would be hard for my future spouse and me. The job of my parents is to raise me so that I can become a successful, responsible adult, and by pressuring me to go to college, they are helping me do just that. Hopefully, if they have been good parents, they have been instilling these principles in me my whole life and now, college should just be the instinctive next step, and this does not require too much pressure.
Some may argue that if my parents are going to make me go to college, they should not make me pay for part of it, as that is not fair to me. But in reality, I think that more benefits than harm come out of this, and if I do not learn to start earning money and saving for something I want or need now, who is going to teach me when I am out on my own and do not have anyone to pay for everything I need? This is just another method of my parents responsibly teaching me right and wrong, and how to survive on my own.
I think it is perfectly reasonable for parents to pressure their teenagers to get a college education, as this is more beneficial to the student than harmful. There is no wrong in encouraging a student to pursue his or her dreams and get a good job.
Learn more about this author, Carissa Johnson.
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No
There are many arguments in favour of pressuring children into getting a college education. There are statistics that show that a college education can lead to a higher average annual income. There are arguments for the social and even political interaction that attending college can provide. It simply cannot be ignored however, that there are many successful people who walked their journey without following a path through tertiary education.
Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc, one of the world's biggest computer hardware manufacturing companies, is reputed to have dropped out of college at the age of 19. John D. Rockefeller - arguably the richest man in history - famously dropped out of high school, before even having the opportunity to attend college. And Henry Ford - responsible for bringing the first commercially produced car to the world, and establishing one of the biggest automotive companies of our time, the Ford Motor Co. - didn't even graduate from high school either.
Social stigma has a lot of repsonsibility in adding to this pressure that parents often put on their children. What's more, children forced into this kind of education not only study it at a compromised level, but they waste precious time and precious money that could surely be better utilised elsewhere in their upbringing.
A child seeking fulfillment outside of the realms of their parents beliefs will also feel like they are rebelling against what they have been taught - whether they agree with it or not. The implications of this can become far greater than the implications of, for example, not attending college.
Needless to say, college can be a path to a career of a higher standard. It can also empower our children with an unmatchable knowledge and allow them to challenge themselves to a higher degree, and help them to grow and learn in positive and unique ways. But it simply isn't the only way to achieve this.
Furthermore, college is an expensive way to embark on a journey of discovery in order to find out just where you fit in in the social structure of our society. It is an expensive way to find out where your interests and passions lie (which is often a reason for parental pressure) and what career will make you happy.
And who says that happiness ultimately comes from a higher education? The clearest arguement here is for the fact that parents shouldn't be putting unecessary or biased pressure on their children for any reason. Parents must understand that guidance is the key, not insistence.
Learn more about this author, Carlos Hurworth.
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