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Chelsea News|Chelsea Clinton News chelseanewsny.com
AUGUST 24-30,2017
AFTER HIGH SCHOOL, LAW SCHOOL OR MED SCHOOL? A high school senior’s thoughts on parents who dictate their children’s futures BY OSCAR KIM BAUMAN
“So, how can my son apply directly to medical school?” says the man at the back of the auditorium. It’s a question I’ve heard time and time again during the past year. The details vary, sometimes they ask about law school or business school rather than medical school, but the core message is always the same. At nearly every college I’ve visited, and even in my own social circles at my Upper East Side high school, I’ve found that with the college application process comes an upsetting trend of overbearing parents attempting to micromanage their children’s futures into what they think is an ideal. When it comes to applying to college, I’ve been incredibly fortunate with regard to the degree of personal freedom I’ve had. I’ve chosen my own dates to take the SATs and made my own decisions about where I want to apply, and what I want to major in. That’s certainly not true for many of my peers. I’ve heard tell of kids who,
Harvard Medical School Quadrangle. Photo: SBAmin, via Wikimedia Commons since elementary school, have known they were going to be doctors, and when asked why, repeat the same points about job stability and practicality without a hint of passion. I realize that their parents had a much greater degree of control over their children in their formative years than mine did over me, and that’s fine. I’m
not about to engage in a debate over parenting methods, but there’s a difference between making choices for children that impact them in the short term and deciding a child’s future, giving a soon-to-be adult no say in the matter of how he or she will spend a good portion of the rest of their life. Consider, for example, a parent who
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wants their child to become a doctor. There are obvious reasons that this career path has become a favorite of controlling parents. In the United States, at least, the health care industry is immensely lucrative, and a career as a doctor carries a certain prestige. But pushing your kid to be a doctor may not be a sure bet. As re-
cent events have shown, the nature of our health care system can quickly change, and though it seems unlikely at the moment, a future move towards single-payer healthcare, already adopted by most other developed nations, would make a career as a doctor much less lucrative. In addition, speaking from a purely selfish point of view, I’d rather have a doctor who genuinely cares about my health than one who was pushed into their field and is only in it for the money. So what overall point am I trying to make? While it pains me to see my peers pushed into careers chosen by their parents, I realize they all have their reasons, and it’s hard to criticize people who, in their own way, just want the best for their kids. That being said, I yearn for the day that every teen approaching adulthood will be allowed to choose their own path in life, to succeed and fail pursuing their passions the way I have. Although the future certainly will include its fair share of doctors and lawyers, I’d greatly prefer if all of them are there by their own volition, rather than because of a decision foisted upon them at 17.