The value of a higher education is being emphasized to high school students by their parents, the media, and society as a whole to the point that they feel forced to earn a degree or face a life of uncertain financial stability. Parents feel it is in the best interest of the child to stress the importance of a degree and some students are eager to attend college while others feel overwhelmed by the pressure of obtaining a higher education. Earning a college degree is not the only way to obtain a secure financial future or happiness.
It is slowly becoming an assumption across the nation that children who graduate high school will move on to attend a two or four year college to obtain a degree. If a child’s parents did not attend college then there is a high probability the child is now expected to be the first generation to continue their education after high school. With so many government-funded programs such as financial aid and scholarships available to American youth parents and grandparents have begun to expect that children will attend college despite a lack of finances and therefore children are pressured to fulfill these expectations even if their ambitions do not include a college degree. If a child’s dream is to become an artist or a professional dancer, depending upon the family, it is likely that the child will choose to become a business major instead because many families emphasize to their children the need to follow a “safe” career path, one which will have jobs available even in tough economic times. A disadvantage with families emphasizing a stable career so strongly is that a child with unique talents or ideas may deprive the world of new inventions, business, or artwork if he chooses to yield to his family’s desires for a stable career. Because this individual chose to yield to a stable career he will never know if he would have succeeded in becoming financially stable and successful following his own ambitions using his talents or...