Parents and Educators Should Steadily Motivate High School Students to Go to College

In high school, students come face to face with the decision of whether or not they want to go to college. From one standpoint, parents, students, and teachers believe high schoolers do not receive enough pressure to go to college because students lack motivation. Nevertheless, on the opposing side of the argument, individuals believe preparing and applying for colleges adds too much stress and pressure to a teenager's life. However, though high school students face a good amount of pressure to go to college, many benefits still arise from attending a two-year or four-year university. In any case, high school teachers and parents do not urge their students enough attend college.

Individuals vary in their beliefs on the amount of pressure a high school student receives. Most parents and high school educators believe their students are either pressured too much to attend college or are not pressured enough to attend college. On one side of the argument, students, parents, and teachers believe pressures to succeed and go to college are not applied enough to high school students.

Teenagers who are not financially stable will decide to find work right after they graduate to support themselves and their families instead of spending time in college to earn a degree. Moreover, students who maintain low standardized test scores and who do not make good grades in their high school classes will not attend college because they believe they will not be prepared for college-level coursework. Finally, parents and school educators do not stress the importance a college degree will play in students' futures.

Order custom essay Parents and Educators Should Steadily Motivate High School Students to Go to College with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

On the other hand, some parents, students, and administrators believe there students receive too much pressure to go to college. From the beginning of freshman year to the end of senior year, parents, teachers, and school administrators only teach high school students about the need to make good grades in the students' classes in order to attend college. Furthermore, high schoolers also encounter the strain of acquiring specific standardized test scores to meet college application requirements. Lastly, colleges add pressure to high school students' lives when the universities start to lower their acceptance rates which causes students to compete with one another for a spot in the colleges of their choice and to apply to as many colleges as possible in an allotted time frame.

From the standpoint of students not getting enough pressure to go to college, parents and teachers believe the problem stems from students not seeing or hearing the value and benefits of receiving a college degree which causes students to lack incentive. Many high schoolers would rather start work after high school to take care of their own self-being as well as aid their families' financial issues. In another sense, other students feel as though they are not academically prepared to attend college. Lastly, high school teachers only stress the importance of making good grades to go to college, but the teachers do not stress the importance of a college degree in the real-world.

Teens would rather begin to work right after they graduate from high school instead of waiting another four years to start working because most independent and lower-class students need to support themselves and their families, financially. In an article from the Chicago Tribune Newspaper concerning reasons behind why high school graduates from Illinois do not attend college, the author writes about one reason discovered by the Beardstown Charter School Learning Academy; "The academy often serves students who have struggled and even dropped out of school for a time, and the school said in a statement its graduates are 'often faced with the decision of college vs. the need to help support the family unit by finding immediate employment"" (Rado 3).

Lower-class students whose families cannot pay for their children's college and students who know they will have to pay for their own college will not apply to a university at the end of their senior year because the students find they need money more than an education. Nonetheless, parents and teachers need to teach their children and students to see the big picture when it comes to attending college; a college degree will help students earn more money in the long-run. Therefore, no matter the personal situation of the student, he or she must be pushed to attend college to receive a financially stable future. On a separate note, a good amount of students feel as though they will not be prepared for college course work because of their high school grades.

In the same article from the Chicago Tribune, Rado states, "But while thousands of the 2012 graduates were headed to college, only about 25 percent of that year's class was considered 'college-ready' — meaning they could perform at least average in freshman classes in four key subjects, based on student scores on each section of the ACT...Now, students who aren't prepared often end up taking remedial classes at their local two-year colleges..." (Rado 2, 3). Students give up easily when it comes to going to college because they believe they will drop out anyway since high school did not properly prepare them for college-level work.

Also, students will look for easier ways to obtain a college degree by taking effortless classes in community colleges. In this case, teachers and administrators need to push their students past the limits; high school educators must work much harder to prepare students for the foundations of college through practice assignments and lectures. Finally, teachers do not stress the importance of the role a college degree plays in students' futures. Rado claims, "The school gives ample support to students, providing intense counseling in choosing colleges, offering college essay writing workshops and holding evening programs on college topics and resources" (Rado 4).

The editor supports the solution of high schools creating programs for students to learn college-level skills. However, though the editor mentions the efforts made to help students out at a local Illinois high school through various programs, Rado does not write about how teachers relay the importance of a college degree to students. Students will learn skills essential for college, but they will not understand why they need to maintain those skills or why it is important for the student to go to college in the first place unless teachers consistently express the seriousness of a college education. Educators must push students to understand the value of college, and more pressure must be applied to students to attend college. In any case, high schoolers need more pressure to go to college because a college degree benefits the students for the rest of their lives.

On the opposite side of the argument, some individuals believe preparing students for college level courses, fulfilling standardized test requirements, and applying for colleges adds too much stress and pressure to a teenager's life. High school students are taught they need to make good grades if they want to go to college, and they have to make certain scores on standardized tests in order to fulfill a requirement when applying for colleges. In addition, colleges place additional pressure on students when the universities lower acceptance rates. Students learn they need to make good grades in their classes in order to attend college.

In an article written in the New York Times Newspaper about student depression rates at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California, a Bay Area psychologist, Madeline Levine, explains, "They [Parents] say, 'All I care about is that you're happy,' and then the kid walks in the door and the first question is, 'How did you do on the math test?"" (Richtel 2). High school students feel as though they're parents expect too much from them academically, and many students claim the pressure from their parents adds stress to the students' academic lives. With pressure to succeed in classes, along with additional pressure from teachers' expectations, homework, and extracurricular activities, students will begin to fall behind in their classes because they cannot handle the amount of stress.

High schoolers also face the pressure of fulfilling standardized test requirements to get accepted into a college. Lindsey Cook, an editor for the U.S. News and World Report online newspaper, writes, “Met with an influx in applications, selective colleges have refined the way they look at students. In the 1980s and before, colleges looked primarily at scores on standardized tests and grade point averages" (Cook 3). Additionally, she also expresses how "Students do more SAT or ACT preparation in the form of courses, books and tutoring" (Cook 3). Instead of focusing on their school work, high school students, especially juniors and seniors, will concentrate more on preparing for the SAT and ACT tests. In turn, students' grades will drop because they stay focused on making good scores on standardized tests.

Overall, too much emphasis remains on standardized tests to a point where high school juniors and seniors cannot keep up with the academic expectations of their classes. Finally, some colleges lower their acceptance rates which makes the application process for high schoolers much harder since students feel rushed to apply to as many colleges as they can to get accepted, and students start to compete with one another to receive a spot in the college of their choice. In the same article from U.S.

News and World Report about the stress of college admissions, Cook interviews Mitchell Stevens, a professor at Stanford University, who explains, "It's a hyper competitiveness for a small number of schools and a maldistribution of seats in the more open access. There are 5,000 colleges and universities in the United States; there are plenty of seats in the system overall. There are just a limited number of seats at the top"" (Cook 1). High school students receive enough pressure from their parents and teachers, but now they become compelled to fight to get accepted into the colleges of their choice which adds additional pressure on them.

The outcome from all of the pressure students receive from their parents, teachers, standardized tests, and college admissions creates friction between a high school student and the need to attend college; high school students resist their parents and teachers' wishes to go to college because of the amount of pressure placed upon the students' academic career.

Though some parents and students believe too much pressure remains behind going to college, colleges try to make their admission process easier. Colleges attempt to lessen a student's burden through the guarantee of a brighter future, the reliance of students' high school GPAs and class report cards to obtain admittance into college, and through composing alternative options for students to take college level courses to obtain a degree. Students feel as though they have a lot of pressure to make good grades in order to get into college. Nevertheless, college will help better the students' futures.

In the New York times article, the editor interviews Alan Eagle, the father of a 17-year old boy, who relays to readers, "I can say all I want that it doesn't matter where my son goes to college.....I personally went to Dartmouth and it did help. I look at the economy, the difference between haves and have-nots, and I believe a college education is critical"" (Richtel 3). College remains essential for the student's success in life because it offers them a degree to get a good job, it better prepares them for the real-world ahead of them, and it helps them to socially connect beyond their personal horizons.

Though many students face the pressure of standardized testing to get accepted into college, many colleges begin to rely on high school grades, GPA, and writing skills instead of SAT and ACT test scores. Rado interviewed Director Elaine Allensworth, from the University of Chicago's Consortium, who claimed, "...'having strong ACT scores is not the only thing that matters for doing well in college... It's not all about being able to take high-stakes tests"" (Rado 3). The editor also adds, "She said student grade point averages are important as well as strong writing skills and other factors" (Rado 3).

Without the burden of standardized tests to add to the stress and pressure of getting into college, high school students will be able focus on their academics and make better grades in their classes which will reflect on their transcripts. Additionally, students will only have to practice their writing skills and they will not have to dedicate a lot of time preparing for the SAT or ACT. Few colleges are beginning to lower their acceptance rates for students so students begin to give up on attending college, but most colleges come up with other options for students to attend college and obtain a degree.

The editor for the Chicago Tribune also interviewed Gary Lewis, a principle for Catlin High School in Vermillion, Illinois as well as a superintendent, who said, "...most of the graduates go on to community colleges, which do not require a college entrance exam for admission. Students also have the opportunity to take classes at community college when they're still in high school, under dual enrollment programs. 'They're kind of exposed to college before they get to college"" (Rado 4). Students who attend community college are still able to acquire a college education as well as have a college experience.

Furthermore, most colleges have classes for students to take online so students would be able to "attend" classes from home as well as maintain a job. No excuses can be made when it comes to high school students going to college. A college degree benefits students in the long run of life, universities make the admissions process easier for students by solely paying attention to grade point averages and transcript grades, and colleges also offer alternative class options, such as online classes or remedial classes, for students to take to get a degree.

All in all, high school students need to receive more pressure from their parents, teachers, and administrators to attend college. Though students may believe they need to find a job after high school, they are not prepared for college classes, or they do not understand the role a college degree will play in their lives, educators must not accept any excuse to not push their students harder to go to college.

In addition, high school students feel they are placed under a lot of pressure to succeed in their classes, perform well on standardized tests, and compete with other students to get into colleges with low-acceptance rates. The amounts of pressure students receive in high school causes them to lose motivation when it comes to attending a community college or university. Despite the pressures high school students believe they receive, parents and educators need to re-motivate students to go to college through talking with the students about the importance of college and through practicing college level class-work with the students.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer