Are Your Life Prspects Determined by the Age of 7?
November 9, 2004
This is a very interesting question posed by the producers of the documentary 28 UP. In this series, 12 English kids are followed through their lives as they grow up. We first meet these kids at the tender age of seven. They are all from different backgrounds economically, and since England is run on the sponsorship mobility, their educational experiences mirror their status in society. By the time all the interviews are finished at seven, everyone watching has their own theories of where these children will be by the age of 28, which is the next video we watched in our education class (even though there is 14 UP, and 21 UP, and 35 UP and most recently 42 UP).
While the personalities of these children in the documentary shine through at the age of 7 clearly dictating likes and dislikes, and their economic status is pretty much written in stone, I believe it is impossible to completely predict their life prospects. This being said, I do not deny that your likes and dislikes, degree of talent, and SES all play an obvious role, it’s just that a person's environment can easily change upseting all of these factors.
For example, when I was seven years old, I was taking piano lessons. I had a huge amount of talent, and enjoyed expressing myself through music. I was also fortunate enough to have the best piano teacher in the area (money wasn’t a factor). When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said a concert pianist. However, by the age of nine, the environment I was living in drastically changed. My mother got engaged, making it impossible for her to claim financial assistance as a single parent. This extra money awarded by the government was paying for my piano lessons, and without it I was forced to quit. In other words, the environment that I was living in no longer fostered my interest and/or talent. As a child, I had very little control over my environment. There was no way I could tell my mom not to get married, but this marriage I was not consulted about required that I change my outlook on life. Without the lessons, I knew there was no way I could become a famous concert pianist.
I can reach the same conclusion with my roommate. At the age of seven, she was taking art lessons. She had a huge amount of talent, and thoroughly enjoyed expressing herself through art. Knowing this, her parents stopped at nothing to ensure she had the best art teacher. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her response was interior designer. However, in high school the art teacher just decided she didn’t like my roommate. There was an obvious personality conflict. The quality of artwork my roommate produced continued to improve (according to her private teacher), but the marks she would achieve on school assignments steadily declined. Of course, my roommate’s parents took their concerns to the principal of the school, but because there were no other complaints filed, the teacher didn’t lose her job. In fact, she just made my roommate’s life worse. Eventually, my roommate began to lose confidence in her abilities, and stopped working on her art portfolio for design school. Besides she knew her art teacher would never give her the recommendation she needed to get into the design school of her choice. She completely switched focus from art to academics, where at least her grades continued to reflect the degree of effort she put in to her assignments.
Therefore, unpredictable factors such as marriages, crushing failures, moving from one place to another, and even mental distress can wreak havoc on being able to predict where one will end up. In case you are wondering, I am one year away from finishing my degree in French and Education, and my roommate graduated last year with a Biochemistry degree and is employed by a pharmaceutical company in Edmonton.
This is a very interesting question posed by the producers of the documentary 28 UP. In this series, 12 English kids are followed through their lives as they grow up. We first meet these kids at the tender age of seven. They are all from different backgrounds economically, and since England is run on the sponsorship mobility, their educational experiences mirror their status in society. By the time all the interviews are finished at seven, everyone watching has their own theories of where these children will be by the age of 28, which is the next video we watched in our education class (even though there is 14 UP, and 21 UP, and 35 UP and most recently 42 UP).
While the personalities of these children in the documentary shine through at the age of 7 clearly dictating likes and dislikes, and their economic status is pretty much written in stone, I believe it is impossible to completely predict their life prospects. This being said, I do not deny that your likes and dislikes, degree of talent, and SES all play an obvious role, it’s just that a person's environment can easily change upseting all of these factors.
For example, when I was seven years old, I was taking piano lessons. I had a huge amount of talent, and enjoyed expressing myself through music. I was also fortunate enough to have the best piano teacher in the area (money wasn’t a factor). When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said a concert pianist. However, by the age of nine, the environment I was living in drastically changed. My mother got engaged, making it impossible for her to claim financial assistance as a single parent. This extra money awarded by the government was paying for my piano lessons, and without it I was forced to quit. In other words, the environment that I was living in no longer fostered my interest and/or talent. As a child, I had very little control over my environment. There was no way I could tell my mom not to get married, but this marriage I was not consulted about required that I change my outlook on life. Without the lessons, I knew there was no way I could become a famous concert pianist.
I can reach the same conclusion with my roommate. At the age of seven, she was taking art lessons. She had a huge amount of talent, and thoroughly enjoyed expressing herself through art. Knowing this, her parents stopped at nothing to ensure she had the best art teacher. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her response was interior designer. However, in high school the art teacher just decided she didn’t like my roommate. There was an obvious personality conflict. The quality of artwork my roommate produced continued to improve (according to her private teacher), but the marks she would achieve on school assignments steadily declined. Of course, my roommate’s parents took their concerns to the principal of the school, but because there were no other complaints filed, the teacher didn’t lose her job. In fact, she just made my roommate’s life worse. Eventually, my roommate began to lose confidence in her abilities, and stopped working on her art portfolio for design school. Besides she knew her art teacher would never give her the recommendation she needed to get into the design school of her choice. She completely switched focus from art to academics, where at least her grades continued to reflect the degree of effort she put in to her assignments.
Therefore, unpredictable factors such as marriages, crushing failures, moving from one place to another, and even mental distress can wreak havoc on being able to predict where one will end up. In case you are wondering, I am one year away from finishing my degree in French and Education, and my roommate graduated last year with a Biochemistry degree and is employed by a pharmaceutical company in Edmonton.
posted by Chantelle @ 5:16 PM
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