Red Light on Education Support

As the saying goes, parents are the first teachers of children. They have given their children enormous warmth, affection and support from the cradle to the grave, both economical and emotional. However, in the information age and knowledge economy of today, it is doubt that whether parents could provide enough support for their children individual development. As far as I’m concerned, like Watkins’ parents, many parents truly provide their children with only certain support when it comes to resolutions concerning career education and future choices.

As the essay mentioned, Watkins’ parents “reluctantly supported her educational endeavors, they also subjected them to constant harsh and bitter critique. They have often felt strange, ambivalent, mistrusting of her intellectual aspirations even as they have been caring and supportive”. For me, from the kindergarten to the college, I’m almost aware of my academic interests and able to make lots of decisions on my own. Both of my parents are workers, and their degrees are not high. They could offer little with the exception of money and full support. They are totally in favor of me on education issues. They can teach me how to cook outside, but they don’t know which professional course I need to attend. As a matter of fact, they just have limit knowledge on our education and respect our own choices. From the foregoing example, it provides the proof that parents give much support to their children life but limit support to future education and career choices.

Obviously, it is vital for parents to spend a great deal of time on their children personal life. However, it is equally important that they should notice their future, too. As Maritain said, “Education aims at: The individual would be obtained spiritual emancipation in virtue of knowledge, wisdom and love” (Maritain 54). The differences between the era of today and that of a few decades ago are stark especially in education. Although another celebrity Neil emphasizes “Caretakers are advised to trust in the natural process and let children self-regulate such that they live by their own rules and consequently treat with the highest respect the rights of others to live by their own rule.“Self-regulation” constitutes a child’s right to “live freely, without outside authority in thing psychic and somatic” (Neil 27). It is no doubt that every parent care about their children. But financial support is not good enough, it’s time for parents to consider whether they can have a more proper way to support their children.

In the final analysis, many parents actually offer their children only limited support referring to the decisions about future education and career choices. Parents have knowledge and experience that children are yet to obtain. Accordingly, I believe that children owe them their respect and gratitude. In the meantime, parents should bear the responsibility to pay more attention to their children future education and career choices, not only personal life. There is much point in enhancing relations between parents and children. And being aware of such a fact can enable parents to lay emphasis on the many aspects of their children including study and life so that a brilliant future will be ahead.

Works Cited

Neil. Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing. Hart Publishing Company. New York.1960.Print.

Maritain. Education in the Crossroad. Yale University Press.1943.Print