Vanessa – Portofolio#3

Parents should allow their children not to go to college if they don’t want to because teenagers should have the right to choose what is best for them, they should not be influence by their parents, and young people should be able to work in other areas if he or she decides not to pursue a university degree.

First, teenagers should have the right to choose if they want go to college or not. Most teenagers at the age of 17 already know what they do not want to do for the rest of their lives and only some of them know what they want to study. They are mature enough to know what is best for them, and because of that, they should have the right to choose whether or not they want to go to college. For instance, Maria Du Carmo Pereira da Silvia is a 17-year-old Brazilian teenager faced a myriad of problems with her family to decide what she was going to do after graduating from high school. Her parents thought that this was a huge decision of going or not to college and they thought that, because they raised her, they should have the right to choose what they thought was best for her.  Her father, Marcos thought that because he was the man in the house, he had the right to make this important decision for Maria. One day, Maria said that she had the right to choose what she thinks it is best for her because this decision will affect her whole life and she was mature enough to decides on that. After that, her family tried to understand her point of view and they let her choose whatever she wanted. Maria decided to work in a art gallery, and now she is very determined about what she wants for her life. She wants to open her own art gallery. Therefore, everyone should have the right to decide on whether or not they should go to the university or just try to decide which course they are going to take there because even young teenagers know what is best for them.

Second, it is not wise for parents to try to influence teenagers on their decision concerning going to college or not. A lot of parents try to interfere on their children decisions about what they are going to do after school. Many of them want their children to follow their footsteps on their career or they just want their kids to deal with their parents’ business. For instance, Rafaela de Almeida Castro is a 17 years old student that studies at Colégio Rio Branco. Her dream is to take an art course after graduation, but her parents are trying to influence her on this decision by telling her that, if she does that, she will starve to death. Ricardo Almeida Castro is Rafaela’s father and a doctor. His ambition is for his only daugther to go to medical school, and after that, work with him at the hospital. Rafaela does not want that for her future. First of all, because she is sick at the sight of blood. Second, she wants to be an art teacher for young children. After having had a lot of fights at home with her family, Rafaela has persuaded her parents that her decision would make her happy. It is awful when parents try to influence their children’s decision because doing what the parents want can make the person unhappy for the rest of his or her life.

Third, another reason why teens may not go to university right away is that there are some areas that a person can work without a university degree. Nowadays, it is very hard to find a job even for people who go to a university. However, there are some areas that a person can qualify without having a degree,  such as at a store, in a restaurant or in a hotel. For example, Fernanda Maciel Xavier is a 23-year-old woman who hated studying and going to school when she was a teenager. When she was 17 years old, she was sure of that she did not want to go to the university. After her graduation at her school, she began to search for a job. She sent her resumé to a lot of places such as restaurants, hotels, pubs, stores, children buffet and others. Only after 2 months, a store named Bob Store called her for an interview. She began to work there as a sales person, and after 5 years, she was promoted to manager of the store, and nowadays, she has her own store named Windsurf. Of course that to be promoted, she had to take several of courses to know better how to deal with clients.  In other words, there are some people that do not want to go to college. It is even harder to find a job without attending university because the person has dedicated even more to their jobs to be financial stable. (it sounds to me here that you are arguing against your own ideas! Be careful.) Therefore, a dedicated person that works very hard can easly find a job withouth going to college.

Vanessa,

Your two first arguments are quite sound, but your third one seems to be a litle lost in its ideas. Here are your grades for this assignment: Content: 5/5. Structure (Organization)= 4.5/5, Vocabulary = 5/5, Grammar = 4.5/5, and Mechanics = 4/5.

Total: 23/25

Rick