Are parents justified in pressuring their teenage children to get a college education?

by Marion Garcia

Created on: July 12, 2009

Are parents justified in pressuring their children to get a college education? Yes, because without a college degree, they won't be able to get a decent job.

Forty years ago a person could get a job a lot easier than today. Parents didn't pressure their kids to get a college degree because there were plenty of companies that would teach their new employees how to do what they needed. It was even easier for a person without a High School Diploma to get a decent job. A person could get a job at the lower level and work their way up to be an executive. This is more difficult today.

Today, companies want educated or experienced applicants. The same jobs that a person with a high school diploma could get forty years ago now require some type of college degree. At this rate in another twenty years, you will probably need a college degree to work at McDonalds.

Most of the blue collar positions are being outsourced to places like India and Iraq. Countries are trying to compete with each other as to which country is the most intelligent. By outsourcing all of the blue collar jobs, we are simply trying to prove that our country is more intelligent than other countries. The only jobs available will be executive and the lowly menial positions. That will give the appearance that the people in our country are more intelligent. By doing so, we are cutting out employment for the middle class people.

The biggest problem with this is that college is not for everyone. There are some people that are just not suitable for sitting through four or eight years of college. Each individual has their own way of learning. There are some people that can learn to be productive and highly successful without a college degree. Why should a person that doesn't have a college degree be stereotyped as being unintelligent because they haven't attended college?

Without a college degree our children will never rise above menial positions. There won't be any jobs available in between menial positions and executive positions. Without a college diploma, your child will not have a chance to get a decent job.

Parents pressure their children to get a good education because they want the best for them. Any good parent who has done their best to care and nurture a child doesn't want to see their child fail as an adult. Parents can't live their life for them, but they can do whatever is possible within their means to open any doors that would help them to succeed in life.

Encouraging them to attend college or even some type of trade, or technical school is definitely justifiable.

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