Becoming a dancer or singer should be encouraged just as much as a doctor or lawyer.

Hi, NoHandleBars, looks like we have about the same level of experience on this site. This will be an interesting debate. I would like to apologize that it took me so long to post for this round, I spilled water on my laptop and just got it fixed! First of all, I may go broader than just being a singer or a dancer; or a doctor or a lawyer, if Con wishes to take the grounds of just these four occupations, please say so and I may limit my arguments based on those four careers. I would like to wish my opponent best of luck and I look forward to a respectful and productive debate. Please check my footnotes for further comments, definitions, and citations. I shall now present my arguments for the first round. ROUND 1 Career decision comes in at a early stages after an individual’s physiological development that lasts into adulthood. As a former student of Psychology, I may mention some learning and cognitive theories that influences an individual’s decision-making. (1) Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivations and Career-planning Passion is a strong driving force to almost everything we do and every thought we make. Where does passion come from? Passion is built on desire and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. As to argue my stance, effective motivations comes chiefly from intrinsic motivations rather than extrinsic motives [1]. A person (not necessary a child or a teen) may be passionate on subjects that differ from what is required to be a doctor or a lawyer. Since middle school and up until now, I hate maths, I have absolutely no pleasure doing maths or related subjects, what is ironic is that my father, who is a civil engineer, encourages me to major in some sort of engineering since my earliest memories. Encouraging your child to take a certain career path can often create stress and its end result may completely backfire and create new problems such as anxiety and even depression. I will not argue that one should not aim for more monetary-rewarding and extrinsic careers such as a lawyer or a doctor, but encouragement should be done to reinforce an intrinsic passion and support a person’s career decision to their success. (2) Psychological Stress, abilities, and Unrealistic Expectations I have said in my previous point that I hate maths and still ironically going for Industrial Engineering, I cannot emphasize how much stress I suffered so far and I can only suggest to high school freshmen to take courses that lead to careers that they like. People are not created equally, not everyone have the potential to become doctors and lawyers. Many students cannot bear the stress that adheres to the subject or simply cannot handle the responsibilities that come with it. Doctor and Lawyer are both extremely stressful subjects and extreme responsibility is needed. If you are a doctor, you have a patient’s life on the line and if you are a lawyer defending defendant, his property and even life can depend on your skills. “Encouraging becoming a doctor or a lawyer, you can always succeed by how much effort you put in.” This is not true, students diagnosed with dyslexia [2], for example, simply cannot study law as effectively as other classmates no matter how much effort they put in. You may say, “well, a person with dyslexia obviously shouldn’t be encouraged,” or “I meant healthy people should be encouraged…” but my point still stands, not everyone can handle the same level of stress nor handle the same types of studies. (3) There is a Steep and Slippery Slope from Success, to Moderate success, and Total Failure What are the chances of you being a famous Actor? Probably slim. What are the chances of you becoming a renowned doctor? Probably just as slim. Becoming a doctor does not guarantee financial or career success. Performers who are registered to the SAG-AFTRA [3] represents a small portion of the whole acting and singing population, these people are the finest selection and have a strong talent and passion in acting much like a literary canon. There are actors who are not registered in the SAG-AFTRA but are great and famous performers (perhaps even greater) as much as there are books that are more interesting than those in the literary canon. If one is not motivated enough to perform they may not be at the top of the game, this is about the same ratio of doctors who have their own talk shows or lawyers who have their own judge _(name here)_ shows. (4) Career Specialization – Concluding argument In the diverse world, society needs people with different talents and skills in order to form a complete and content society. We cannot have everyone become doctors since encouragements are sometimes ineffective given certain circumstances and it is unrealistic (as mentioned in the first and second point). We need singers, actors, dancers as to accommodate in the society as entertainers as much as we need healers and law specialists, even artists have a place in society. Even siblings have different strengths and limitations, the younger brother may be better at computers than his older sister, and one may have interest in history rather than biology. Given this, encouragements should be done to reinforce special talents and skills. Footnotes: [1] David Myers’s Psychology Textbook [2] http://www.ncld.org... [3] http://www.sagaftra.org...