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The Right to Think
Sang Nguyen
English 101
Professor; Teddy Chocos
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Parents usually want the best for their children. They want their children to be happy
and to develop the skills necessary to be successful in life. This desire can lead parents to put
pressure on their children in ways that are not best for their emotional and psychological
development. It is very normal and natural to want the best for your child and to want to do
everything possible to prepare them for life.Therefore, sometimes parents put a lots of
pressure on their children and make them do what they do not want to do. However those
parents should know that their influence can accomplish or destroy their children’s ability to
reach the goals and dreams that they have set for themselves. Parent raise their children by
forcing their children to do what they don’t want to do could have many negative effects
such as boredom depressed, lack of creative, and less independent.
When children are born, the soul is a blank sheet of paper without any restrictions.
They have the power and freedom to think, they could express their thoughts through their
emotion. They could think that they can do everything in this world and become whomever
they want; they wished to become a business man, a pilot, and an actor and film actress. But
when they grow up, the limitations come from parents which forcing their children do what
they don’t want to do. When they realize that their power of thinking could not be recognize
and develop, they feel disrespect which could lead they are not thinking for new ideas. And
they will never and find out the power of their thinking and develop it as the way they want
to be
Instead of forcing children, they are should be given the freedom to think, which is
the right of all humans. If children don’t get freedom to think or do what they want, they
might try to do what pleases their parents. They could play an instrument or sport or take a
class which they don’t like because they know that their parents will be proud of them and
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will love and praise them. When children and teenagers focus all their attention looking
outward for affirmation and love, they don’t develop the ability to look inward for what
pleases them, and they don’t develop the internal resources to take care of themselves and
nourish themselves.
We –humans are all the same. Steve Jobs was the foundation of Apple Company
doesn’t have superhero powers, the power to think for his own and the power to have
freedom in his thinking; moreover he loved what he did. By owning this power, Steve Jobs
changed his entire identity. It is because he did what he wanted to do, he always had
confidence in what he did and he was always hoped something good will happen to him and
his life. He believes the thinking of a person could reach to the moon, the person who jumped
from space or the person who painted a portrait, all these people had the power and freedom
to think, and they all managed to experience what the world has to offer.
Most parents should let their children a chance to think and do what they love to do,
therefore they could express their own thinking and ideas such as Steve Jobs. However
instead of giving children a chance, nowadays parent usually forcing them to the way that
they don’t want to do and it will lead to the negative effect which could harm to children’s
thinking and they are not realize how it is important, it is the reason that could create the
state of feeling empty, lonely, and depressed.
Depression can occur when children can not do what they want to do. It is a serious
condition characterized by a persistent sad mood, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, and the
inability to feel pleasure or happiness. The story “Two Kind” by Amy Tan is good example
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to describe that parent’s force their children do what they do not want to do. The mother was
always optimistic about her daughter to become a prodigy because she believed her daughter
could be anything she wanted to be in America which also she had not has an opportunity
since she was in China. The mother prepared to train her daughter in order to become a
prodigy very good. She made Jing-Mei to take some tests in order to show how smart she was
and give her the courage to become a prodigy. Jing-Mei’s mother was encouraging the
prodigy part in Jing-Mei. However, Jing-Mei’s mother was pushing Jing Mei to learn so
much: “Every night after dinner my mother and I would sit at the Formica-topped kitchen
table” (Two Kinds – page 77) Jei-Ming was taking the tests every day after her mother got
back from work. Not only make Jei-Ming take so much test, but the mother also keeps
increasing the level of the tests. This is a negative attitude of teaching children by forcing
them to do so much hard work every single day. As a result, Jei-Ming becomes bored. She
does not want to become a prodigy any more.
A child is growing with a lot of influence, there can be a lot of problem with this type
of parenting and they can feel that they are too much pressured as a son or a daughter and
therefore the pressure can start where they will not have the ability to have an imaginative
mind. This will then avoid the number of child that has the potential of great ideas to be stuck
and imprisoned by what their parents wants. David Elkind is the professor of psychology and
chair of the Department of Child Study believes:“Today’s child has become the unwilling,
unintended victim of overwhelming stress – the stress borne of rapid, bewildering social
change and constantly rising expectations” (Childhood’s End – page 62). Children become
less decisive and lack of creativity because of the social push. Creativity is about expressing
ourselves. It is about trying new things and new ways of being. Creativity involves being
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imaginative and original. It is sometimes thought that only certain people are creative.
(Creativity Crisis) The creative process is developing confidence in ourselves .Unfortunately
there are many children could not expressing their creatively because in some family, it
doesn’t matter if the child loves the particular things or not, they do not have a choice to pick
the life that they want, since they are born. Belonging to parents could reduce their creativity
and lose an inspiration to creative. The pressure of the parents on not letting the child to do
anything except what the parent wants him/her to do will affect the person’s confidence as it
will force the child’s feelings, opinions and ideas. Therefore we live in the world which lack
of creative; the cause is not having freedom to think and power of thought.
According to Creativity Crisis, the independent could be born by creativity and lack
of creative which has been killed by parent especially who forcing their children, it also will
create the children’s world without independent. The journal Early Adulthood: Roles and
Issues, Grace J. Craig, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, “I’ll always belong to
my parents and believe in their world.”(89) Children, even as adults, always have to listen
and follow their parent direction. Parent does not allow them to do anything their entire
young lives, so how can a child suddenly be independent when they're growing. Some parent
does not realize the negative effect of lack of independently. They do not know when they are
not around anymore it will cause panic and mayhem in their children lives cause they just lost
the people that they believe the most to solve their problem. Less independent will tend to
lead to not having an ability to solve problems in life as they will always rely on the parents
to do so. And it is keeping on; children will never have ideas about how to cope with the
challenge and how to be independent person.
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All in all, if every child has confident and independently, they will experience a world
of creativity, and the cycle will no longer exist, meaning they have a chance of succeeding.
This is because they will tend to explore more things in the world and through this the child
will earn more experience and more knowledge about how the world works. Parents should
not force children to think , they should provide opportunities and encouraging their children
therefore they could cope with the problem and especially they will excite and love in the
world they are involve to.
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Bibliography
Jobs, Steve
Tan, Amy “Two Kinds”
David Elkind – Childhood’s End
The Decline of Creativity in the United States: 5 Questions for Educational
Psychologist Kyung Hee Kim." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica,
n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.