Issue proposal

Professor Rowntree

September 11, 2014

Issue Proposal

Over the years, an increasing emphasis has been placed on education. Many parents tell and expect their children to further their education so that they can have successful careers, believing that without it their children would suffer in their adult lives. Throughout the past few years, I have witnessed many of my former classmates, friends, and family members argue with their parents over their future. With the rapidly growing need for higher education, many children, some of whom may be reading this, are being denied the chance to pursue other “unsuccessful” careers such as music, art, or even journalism because parents believe it will not bring them success. Having seen many people go through this situation, I am aware that there are a great, diverse amount people with similar experiences, even in this very classroom or university. Growing up, following my parents' wishes was what I wanted; graduate high school in the top ten students of the class. During senior year of high school, my parents chose the university I was to attend and what major I would be enrolling in. Now that I'm in college, I realized that what they wanted for me was not what I wanted for myself, leading to several arguments and an abundance of anxiety and stress on my part as I tried to meet their expectations. For this semester's paper, I plan to write about the different sides, the pros and cons, of this topic. I chose this topic because not only is it important and relevant to me, but because it is also relatable and important to numerous individuals going through a similar experience as well.

While I am currently experiencing this issue myself, I cannot base ideas on my experiences alone. Therefore, there are numerous things I would like to investigate, such as the futures of children who did and did not go through with their parents' wishes. Statistically, what percentage of kids obeyed? Disobeyed? Out of the two, how many went back to school later in life? Though these statistics may be hard to acquire, there are other points that can be looked into. One of them may be to research the psychological and emotional damage going through this process could cause, if any. Another may be to look into why some parents choose their child's career, and if they do what the most commonly chosen careers are and whether they are worth it. Overall, finding information about the effects of choosing and pressuring children into a certain career, whether short or long-term, is important in deciding whether or not parents should or should not choose a career for their children.

From personal experience and from hearing the stories of others who have went through similar situations, being ridden with anxiety and feeling hopeless and like you have failed are common effects. To learn more about the issue, I plan to look on the web for articles and research pertaining to this situation. To elaborate, searching through psychology-related or college-related (more specifically, major exploration) websites may give me some information. Otherwise, I can look at the people being put through this situation by searching through student’s personal blogs and maybe even some social media. If it is possible, looking on certain online databases and books may help if they can contribute to this topic. Another route would be to ask the people who may or may not be involved, such as fellow students, parents, and maybe even psychologists if it comes to it. Lastly, if I cannot find statistics for the questions above, it is a possibility that I can carry out my own statistical survey.

As mentioned before, I believe that this is a fairly common situation in our society today. Therefore, I believe that possible audiences would be students (though this may impact college freshmen more than other ages), parents (possibly even couples who are planning to have kids), and student advisors and counselors, since they are the most likely to be exposed to children who are at loss as to what they want to do with their lives. Similarly, the students who could've been or were pressured into being certain professionals would be interested in this issue. Even if some people weren't pressured into a career, they might be able to relate due to feeling of being pressured, whether it be by their peers or about the clothes they wear. Though the groups I have listed are very vague and can mean about anybody, the truth is that we should all be concerned about this issue because those children who are being forced into a career may be our future doctors, lawyers, engineers, politicians, or other career professionals that are believed to be economically successful by parents. For this topic, my allies would most likely be those who are going through or went through this situation, whether they ended up following their parents' intention or not. Other allies could be those who end up siding with those who were being pressured, which could mean various people depending on their opinions on this particular issue. As a result, a group of allies could potentially be the younger generation of children here in the United States, who are thought of as extremely fortunate for all the technological advantages and educational opportunity, and the first-generation children in the U.S., because they seem to have the extra pressure of trying to prove to their parents that their sacrifice to move was worth it. On the other side of the coin, my opponents could be the parents who are pressuring their kids into a certain field, especially ones who immigrated into the U.S. to give their child a better future, and older adults who think down on the newer generations; those who say that kids these days have it easy and that they should stop complaining and whining about their circumstances. For example, a friend of mine is the first generation child, and her parents desperately wanted her to pursue a career in the medical field, but she wanted to major in music. They have had numerous arguments over the duration of my friend’s high school years. She has even tried to compromise, offering to go towards becoming a musical therapist, but they were still insistent. In the end, my friend pursued her dreams by majoring in music. In this situation, she would be my ally and her parents would be my opponents.

Since this issue is growing more prominent, a good way to introduce it to my audience would be to explain it as in the introduction and then state statistics (if they are available) to show that parents pressuring their children into careers may seriously affect them in the future, for good or for bad. Then, I can discuss my own personal experiences and those of friends and family who have gone through the same situation. That way, the audience would be able to emphasize, one way or another, wholeheartedly or just a little bit, with the children of this generation who are torn between pursing their own passions or their parents' wishes. Due to this, I believe that this is a viable topic that can be researched and written about for the duration of this semester.