Should I Let My Child Study Whatever I Want?
Choosing a university career is one of the most difficult for any individual. We start from the fact that, often, teenagers have not discovered what their passion is or are not aware of their strengths and weaknesses. That way they don’t know what to choose. What to do as a parent? Should I let my child study whatever he wants?
The vast majority of students who graduate from high school do not know what to study at university or what profession is best suited to their lives. Many make this decision thinking about their tastes at the time.
Another reason is usually to want to keep the same social circle in college or else to follow wrong social precepts, such as those that say the best careers are medicine or engineering.
Faced with such a complex issue, which brings headaches at home, let’s present some considerations. The idea is always to avoid the frustration of young people or even dropping out of university.
Should I let my child study whatever he wants?
The answer to this question is yes. It is considered that it will not be healthy in any way if parents impose on their children what to study against their will. Without a doubt, their performance will not be optimal if they have to take classes about something they don’t like.
School counselors are also sure that choosing a profession is not an easy task. School and family must work together well in advance to prepare the teenager for their professional future.
However, there are many factors that influence this decision, ranging from the teenager’s passing tastes to the reluctance to leave the bonds of friendship with peers, or the idea of wrongly following in the footsteps of parents, without analyzing whether they really like the profession or whether they will be able to exercise it.
Based on these ideas, the help that parents can offer teenagers can be summarized in four steps, also taking into account aspects of the youth’s personality and suggested careers.
Aspects to be considered
The two aspects to be considered to guide the adolescent correctly are:
- Get to know your teenager’s personality, abilities and skills without deluding yourself.
- Evaluate the student’s educational record for at least the last three years, in order to identify in which educational areas he/she performs better.
How to guide this decision through four steps
1. Chat
Once the two aspects discussed above are identified, it is important to have several very sincere conversations. In them, it is necessary to make a list of the skills, capacities and academic background of the young person to really know their possibilities, regardless of choosing scientific, medical or humanistic areas.
It is important for your child to feel free to discuss these issues openly. As a responsible adult, you must be there to listen to him and to feel understood and supported in the decision he makes.
2. Take the vocational test
After discussing the strengths and weaknesses, it is recommended that the young person be taken to take a vocational test that will help to define their educational trends definitively.
These tests can be done in the school advisor’s office or on the Internet, but always checking if the professional has the guarantee of the support of an educational institution.
3. Visit workspaces
Young people often have a romantic idea about certain careers. So a very important third step is to take teenagers to visit the office of an accountant, a designer, an engineer, or a hospital room. Thus, he will be able to verify – at least superficially – what the daily life of this profession is like.
4. Choice of university
Choosing a university is also a fundamental step for young people to feel independent and happy while studying. So, review with him the best options that meet your needs.
As a final piece of information, you should keep in mind that many young people do not want to start university studies right away and may even postpone it for up to two years. However, this is not necessarily a negative, as it can give your child more time and maturity to get his life going.
