By: Michael Wang <[email protected]>

Junior Bryan Granato wanted to take recreational games, some computer classes and play football this year. However, his plans changed, because when he was scheduling for his junior classes last year, according to him, his parents wanted him to stay on course and take a lot of science and writing-related classes.

Students like Granato said they are influenced by their parents on what classes they should take for the subsequent year.

He said, “They give me advice, and I usually take it.”

Counseling department chairperson Linda Skafish said that parents should have a say in what their children take but there should be a balance. “It is important for parents to have input,” she said.

“As a parent, you are concerned that (your children) are well prepared, but you also want to make sure that the kids are taking classes that they are interested in.”
Parents influence their children by advising them on what classes they should take for the upcoming year. As for the amount of influence parents should exert on their children, though, Skafish said, “I think it is important to have the right amount of influence. It is important to get the right balance between students and parents, and I think that the older the student gets, the more parents want to move their kids toward independence, so younger students should have more input from their parents, and the older you get the parents back off and really want their kids to take responsibility for it.”

However, sometimes students like Granato said they feel that too much influence from their parents when they are scheduling is not fair because it restricts their choices of classes they can choose.

He said, “It is kind of good and also at the same time kind of bad, because it takes away my freedom of what I want to choose.”

Granato’s dad, Frank Granato, said he believes that at the age of 17, too much influence rather than too little influence is better.

“I think a 16-year-old or 17-year-old person does need the support and guidance of a parent to guide them in the direction of their future,” he said.

“It is the job of the parent to have their child be well-rounded, so when the time does come where they have to make the choice, they will be well prepared to make that choice.”

According to Bryan, if he is given the choice of his parents having too much influence or too little influence, he would prefer for his parents to have too much influence, because he said that if there were too little influence, students could just take blow off classes, which would affect them negatively when they are applying to colleges.
According to Skafish, though age has a lot to do with how much influence parents should exercise on their children, she said it really just depends on the family because it varies among families.

“Some parents kind of trust that their kids are going to look at all the material and pick out what they want to take, but then there are other parents that want to make sure their kids get things right, so they will sit down with (their children) and help them figure out the courses,” she said.

“A lot of it depends on whether there have been older students in the family or not, so the first time through, parents tend to be real careful, so their kid gets what they need to graduate on time and be prepared for college.”

Mr. Granato said he believes that it is his job as a parent to guide his son in the right direction.

He said, “(I give) strong advice, because that is my job, and that is my job as a parent.”

Skafish said, “(Parents) want to push (their children) a bit, so they are challenged, (but) some parents need to not overextend it too.”