Parental Involvement & Success of Youths in Canada - Essay Example

Parental Involvement & Success Of Youths In Canada Parental involvement in youth matters is a controversial at present. There aremany sociologists and psychologists who argue in favour and against the over involvement or control of parents over their children. Some people believe that parents can streamline the lives of the youths in the right direction. At the same time many others are of the view that parents should not exercise much control over youths once they attain maturity. Lack of parental control helped Canadian youths very much in shaping their successful youth culture. Even in the absence of parental control, Canadian youths hold a good track record as far as crime prevention is concerned. In countries where parental involvement is more, youths struggle to shape their lives in an independent manner. This paper analyses the lack of parental involvement in the lives of Canadian youth and concludes that the single most detrimental factor to the success of the youth culture in Canada is attributed to lack of parental involvement in youth matters. Parental Involvement & Success Of Youths In Canada Lack of parental control is cited as the major reasons for the youth problems in many countries, especially in western countries. Since western countries are highly developed and most of the parents in these countries are working professionals, they are not getting enough opportunities to spend time with their children or guide them in the proper directions. Many sociologists are of the view that parental control is necessary to streamline the youthful energy in the right direction. However, in the case of some countries or at least in the case of Canada, the above argument seems to be invalid. In fact Canadian youths become more successful than youths in other countries only because of the lack of parental control they enjoyed in the past. In other words, the lack of parental involvement in the lives of Canadian youth is the single most detrimental factor to the success of the youth culture. Lack of parental involvement and success of the youths in Canadian culture If the parents have succeeded economically, socially, educationally, and professionally, then the kids are living at a different set of standards... and the kids who’s parents are doing well by the sweat of their brow, who are working in factories and construction, but are doing well and they came here to do better for their kids… they feel a sense of obligation to their parents. There is an expectation…they came here to have a better life (Pathways to success, 2006, p.16). The above findings show that the hardworking nature of the parents influenced the youths very much rather than the parental control or involvement in their activities. It is an accepted fact that majority of the Canadian parents are working professionals and they are dedicated more to their profession. Their hard work helped them to achieve a better socioeconomic standard in their Canadian social life. Because of the over emphasize given to profession, Canadian parents failed to give enough attention to the needs of their children irrespective whether they are adult or young. Even though most of the sociological and psychological theories stress the importance of parental control or involvement for the proper development of young generation, Canada seems to be a country which proved those theories wrong. Canadian youths learned many inspiring lessons from the lives of their parents even though they failed to extend adequate care to their children. The crime rates in Canada is comparatively low among adult population even though Canadian parents show less importance towards their involvement in youth matters. “Although the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) contains more references to parents than did previous youth justice legislation, it contains little discussion of the principles underlying parental involvement”(Bala et al, 2009). In other words, even the government thinks that the role of parents is less in controlling youth crimes. In Canada, parents are not financially responsible for court ordered treatment or restitution of a young person. Generally, there is a reluctance on the part of courts to hold one person liable to compensate a third party unless that person has done something to breach a duty to the third party. This is the essence of tort law. For example, in the case of driving offences committed by young people driving the family car, case law has established the liability of registered car owners; vehicle insurance covers such vicarious parental liability claims. In other cases, the plaintiff must persuade the court that the parents knew or reasonably ought to have known that the young person would commit the act in question (Parental liability laws, 1997). In fact majority of the Canadian youths do not feel the need of parental control or involvement in their matters. Lack of parental involvement helped them to take decisions independently while facing problems. Thus the skill of independent decision making has been developed among the Canadian youths because of the lack of parental involvement in their matters. Majority of the Canadian youths are self-sufficient in dealing their personal matters. Even while taking decisions about marrying, Canadian youths are getting freedom to choose their partners. It should be noted that in some patriarchal societies like Middle East or Afghanistan, youths, especially the females do not have the freedom to choose their partners. In fact many of the Muslim female youths were forced to become the second, third, or fourth wife of old males. It should be noted that the hard-core terrorist Osama had more than three wives and one of them was below 30 years of age. Most of the marriages occur in Muslim societies because of the pressure from the parents and most of them do not have the consent of the females. On the other hand in Canadian culture, no youth female would marry a boy, if she does not like him. In other words, the role of parents in selecting a partner is feeble in Canadian culture. Because of that Canadian youths enjoy their family life more than others. “In Canada, lifelong learning has become a policy priority for federal and provincial/territorial governments”(Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable Lifelong Learning Background Paper, p.3). Irrespective of young or old, lifelong learning has been accepted as a slogan by the Canadian public. In other words, both young and adults are equally interested in continuing their education till the end of their lives. The advantages of such lifelong education can be witnessed in Canadian social life also. While most of the parents in other parts of the world cease their education after getting a job, Canadian parents continue their education which helps them to learn more about the new trends and changes happening in social life. Thus they have no reluctance in allowing their children to lead a life of their own. Youths on the other hand welcome this gesture from their parents wholeheartedly. They never tried to misuse their freedom; instead they try to use such freedom in a constructive or positive manner. “In July 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world, after the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, to legalize same-sex marriages nationwide”(Makarenko, 2007). In 2005, Canada became the first country in American continent which legalised same sex marriage. Even though, same sex marriage and staying together like modern concepts of family life are controversial, Canada appears to be a country which shows readiness in accepting these changes rapidly. The critical analysis of same sex marriage or staying together is beyond the scope of this paper. The point is that Canadian youths are capable to accept any of the social changes more quickly than others because of the lack of parental involvement in their matters. Canadian youths succeeded in developing independent thoughts because of the absence of any parental involvement in their matters. If the parents were involved actively in youth’s social life, the story would have been different. It should be noted that even in the most civilized countries like United States, same sex marriage is a controversial subject as of now. In other words, Canadian youths are much more advanced than the youths in America in forcing social changes. Parental involvement is necessary only up to a certain age. In most of the countries, the voting age is 18. Age 18 is prescribed as the legal drink age, voting age, driving age etc in many countries. In other words, a youth who crossed the age of 18 is able to take sound decisions according to the governmental laws. Under such circumstances, parental control beyond that age is unnecessary. Canadian parents know this fact very well and that is why they enforce weaker control over the youth matters in Canada. They know very well that the Canadian youths are capable enough to take sound decisions in their lives and supervision beyond 18 years of age will destroy them rather than helping them. The above point can be made clearer with the help of the example of a driving learner. A person who learns driving will drive the vehicle only under the control of his master. In other words, the master will be there inside the car along with the learner while the driving learning process takes place. It should be noted that the learner will become a true driver only after he becomes able to drive a vehicle without a master. In other words, he will never become a true driver if the supervision is there. In the absence of supervision he will try to do things as his own which will educate him the different characteristics of driving. In the case of youths also, the above example is applicable. As long as the parental involvement or control is there, youths will be just like the driving learner. In the absence of parental control only, they will become true drivers of their lives. Conclusions Lack of parental involvement helped Canadian youths in developing a successful youth culture. Canadian youths never tried to misuse their freedom and they used it for constructive purposes. The dependency of Canadian youths over their parents is considerably less and because of that they are able to take sound decisions much early in their lives. In societies where youths have increased dependence over their parents, freedom or choice is limited for them. Saudi Arabia is a best example for which underdevelopment of youth culture is taking place because of the over involvement of parents in youth matters. On the other hand in Canada, youth culture seems to be developing in the right direction because of the lack of parental involvement. References Bala N, Carrington PJ and Roberts JV (2009). Evaluating The Youth Criminal Justice Act After Five Years: A Qualified Success. Canadian Journal of criminology and criminal justice. Vol. 51. No.2. Abstracts retrieved from http://www.ccja-acjp.ca/en/cjc2/cjc51a2.html Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable Lifelong Learning Background Paper (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.aboriginalroundtable.ca/sect/lrng/bckpr/INAC_BgPaper_LLL1_2_e.pdf Makarenko J. (2007). Same-Sex Marriage in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/same-sex-marriage-canada Pathways to success: Immigrant Youth at High School (2006). Retrieved from http://www.communitybasedresearch.ca/resources/Pathways%20to%20Success%20Immigrant%20Youth%20at%20School%20Final%20Report.pdf Parental liability laws (1997). Retrieved from http://www.johnhoward.ab.ca/pub/C11.htm Read More