Educational institutions should actively encourage their students to choose fields of study that will prepare them for lucrative careers.Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position you take. I

There are decisions in life with too great an impact to make alone. Thus, in order to make such decisions, we often seek the counsel of others, such as our family, our close friends or an expert in a relevant field. One such case is choosing a career, and, since we are called to make our first career decisions during our adolescence or young adulthood, one of the groups that play a larger role in our decision is the educational institution we are attending at the time. Some propose that schools should be actively involved in the decision process and influence students towards career paths that can lead to more money and success; others disagree. Assuredly, such a policy could help students land a decent job with an appreciable income. But is it really possible for schools to predict the success of a certain student? There is always a strong possibility that a student succeeds where others did not, or that an unexpected opportunity or alternative appears along the way. Therefore, while schools should help students evaluate their options and provide them with enough information on how to pursue them, they should not influence them towards any direction.

The first thing to have in mind when evaluating such a policy would be that success itself is difficult to predict. While there is a glut of statistics and analyses on what careers are more likely to provide job opportunities or higher incomes, there is no actual predictor on how successful a specific person would be in a specific career path. A famous example from history would be that of Walt Disney, a cartoonist that created from scratch one of the greatest and wealthiest business empires of our times. Drawing cartoons for newspapers was never meant to be a lucrative career, yet Disney put an incredible amount of hard work and perseverance, and eventually found success. An application of the policy in question would have discouraged Disney from further pursuing his dreams, and, if it had, Disney might have never achieved tantamount success in any other field. Not every person will become successful at a “non-lucrative” field; but this does not mean every person will fail.

Another reason why the discussed policy would fail is that it is impossible to account for all the different opportunities that may appear along the way. When evaluating the outlook of a certain career, it is easy to fall into the trap of reviewing only some of the limitless opportunities a career path can lead to. For instance, when TV star and studio executive Lucille Ball was attending the John Murray Anderson School for Dramatic Arts in New York, her instructors actively discouraged her from pursuing her dream to become a Hollywood actress. It was a competitive field, and very few people became genuinely successful. In fact, they were right; Ball never made it into Hollywood. But another opportunity neither she or her instructors had considered appeared in the emergent and increasingly popular world of television. Nowadays, we remember Lucille Ball as the star and producer of her immensely popular “Lucy” sitcoms, the nominee of thirteen and winner of four Emmys, as well as the first woman ever to run a television studio. Indeed, there are many lucrative options a career can lead to, that are not obvious or available from the start. As a result, the discussed policy would prevent students from pursuing career paths, even if success was hiding just around the corner.

Interestingly enough, there is one seemingly legitimate argument in favor of the policy in question. Some might argue that, by encouraging their students to pursue profitable jobs, schools should be able to protect them from later disappointments and failures. However, this largely overlooks the fact that success and happiness in life are not only defined by financial security. There are other factors to consider, such as how interesting and enjoyable a job is or how easy it is to achieve a balance between professional and personal life. These factors should be taken into account when choosing a career; and an educational institution would be able to help students realize and evaluate them.

All in all, the discussed policy, which would see educational institutions actively influencing students towards “lucrative” career paths, would fail, because it is impossible to estimate beforehand how successful a specific student would be in a specific career path. Every person follows a unique path in life and encounters entirely different opportunities. This does not mean that schools should not help students with their career decisions in any way; they should provide them with the necessary resources in order to make a decision as informed and prudent as possible. But, when it comes to actively determine which path to follow, students should make the decision themselves.