Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim In developing and suppor

In order to proceed with this argument, we first need to define “success”. What does success mean for a student? Is it about simply the student doing well in a field of study relative to others? Is it about eventually pursuing or having a good career goal? If not, is success about pursuing happiness and one’s satisfaction in engaging in a particular study? Depending on the definition of success, the argument may vary. In this essay, I will define success as performing better than others in understanding the concepts and applying them to a greater field of real-life situations in a particular discipline.

The primary responsibility of educational institutions is to expose students to various fields of study to guide them through navigating the scholarly world of diverse discipline and help them find where their potential lies. Given this function of educational institutions, it is understandable why some would argue that they should actively dissuade students when they choose to study a particular field in which they seem not to be performing well. However, I argue that this dissuasion is an unnecessary manipulation and intervention of schools into students’ own free choice; it not only hinders students from having an independent attitude in life, but also does a poor job of guiding students to success.

Educational institutions should be the kind of institution that should maintain the most amount of trust in students. They should value and respect their choices, and encourage students to make independent choices while supporting them with various resources so that their efforts would have a better payoff. The backbone of every school is the diversity and the motivation of students wanting to build their own unique lives, and schools should believe in the students for the choices they make. We all know ourselves the best, and there must be a good reason why a student would want to pursue a particular field of study, even when he or she is not performing well at it now.

To be sure, one may claim that students lack the knowledge and experience of school professionals such as teachers and guidance counselors, and thus it is necessary for educational professionals to dissuade them from making choices them seem to be at odds with their benefit. I admit that, to a certain extent, guidance and advice are needed when students make important decisions. For example, when students select top three majors to study when applying to colleges, they can talk to their college counselors or their most trusted teachers to gain some insight on their academic performance and what they suggest the student to study. However, I argue that an active dissuasion to make students revoke their decision to pursue a certain field of study is excessively didactic.

For example, when a student who has failed all the Math classes chooses to major in Math in college, there must be a good reason why the student has made such a decision. It could be that he wants to continue studying math to overcome his weakness in Math, or it could even be that he still is interested in some other mechanisms of Math that he further wants to investigate in college. However, if a guidance counselor dissuades that student from making that chioce, it makes it impossible for that student to ever find out if he has potential of being great in Math. Therefore, schools should always respect the students’ choices. Although guidance is necessary, an active refusal or denial of students’ choice is excessively authoritative.