Wednesday 11 August 2010

It runs in the family

There was a story in the news this week where research had found that in some areas of the UK young people who had parents that were unemployed are more likely to be unemployed themselves.

This started me thinking about whether there was a correlation between young people who achieve their dreams and what their parents achieved in their lives. The other factor to look at is how much a family’s wealth effects the likelihood of their child going on to be successful.

Some people would say that young people from less privileged families can be more motivated to achieve their dreams as they want to change their life, their surroundings and their lifestyle. Then there is the flipside that it is also a damaging effect to be brought up in less privileged circumstances as they don’t have money to buy equipment or attend special lessons in their area of talent and don’t have the contacts in that area, on top of this they can be more exposed to crime and due to their circumstances can be susceptible to ill health.

If you look at young people from privileged backgrounds they can have the money to pay for all the equipment and lessons they need. They have less pressures in the way of money & crime, they can also have access to a better education. It is said however that young people from a privileged background may have less motivation as they have a more comfortable lifestyle.

I know this issue generates some very strong opinions and heated debate. I would like to see some research on this to see what correlations could be drawn if any. I still like to think myself that none of this matters and that success is based on the individual and not on the situation as I have seen young people from all walks of life achieve great things.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

1 comment:

Vidrro said...

It's totally real, I agree with you, I'm from Colombia and here we have a high inequality index (is called Gini index), that means only few people here can access to a good university. In my opinion poverty is directly related with the rate to access to a good institution (at least it is totally valid here).

Maybe I made some grammar mistakes, so excuse me for that.