Force no, encourge strongly yes.
For thouse of you who say, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. If you hold his head down long enough he will drink. Just Kidding.
Bostonian, of course you cannot force someone to go to college or to study. But having an expectation of your child is a good thing. I expect good behavior, I expect politness, and I expect him to go to college and get a degree. These are not bad expectations. I as a parent must help my child set his expectations. Not having a standard of expectations would be bad. I fear to many parents (Myself included) do not set the standards of expections. Homework before video games, i.e. delayed gratification. Allowing failure is also a good thing, kind of like a disney movie I saw once. Why do we get knoked down, so we can learn to get back up. Just my 2 cents.
Sure. Expectations are grand. But see, the thing is, if you raise a child to be a strong, intelligent, independently thinking young man or woman, there's an inherent danger-- it may
work. And strong, intelligent, independently-thinking young adults have this crazy habit of...oh, I dunno, let's call it "independent thinking". Wherein they are just as likely to decide not to go to the Ivy school, but instead join the military/take up residence in a commune/start a rock band/embrace the life of a cloistered nun/become a welder or textile artist.
Never mind how I know this.
