Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Classmates are a more important influence than parents on a child’s success in school. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
(a) When children attend school, they spend most of their time with their classmates. Because of this reason many people think that classmates are a more important influence than parents on a child’s success in school. I totally agree with this statement in the light of my experiences and my other friends’ experiences. In this essay, I will try to figure out how classmates are an important influence on a child’s success in school.
First of all, at the very beginning of the school years, children meet new friends and they get close with some of them either because they get along with them well or they are in the same neighborhood. It is very normal for a child to have new friends that she likes and have enjoyable time but sometimes these classmates become a very important influence on a child’s behavior. This behavior can affect her positively or negatively.
For example my cousin had had some friends at school. She liked them a lot but I felt something wrong as soon as I met them. I talked to my cousin about it but she didn’t listen to my advice. Later on she realized that her friends were using drugs and cut her relations with them. My cousin and her family had to move to another city because this event affected my cousin very much and she suffered some psychological problems. My cousin had to give up her school for a year and took her 2 years return to her normal life.
On the other hand, classmates can influence a child’s success in school in a good way. Because, to my way of thinking, meeting new people, getting to know them, is an important experience in one’s life. Studying together, helping each other with some problems is very useful. For example, I study with my friends for the exams and I think it is very helpful. One of my friends can solve a mathematics problem that the others cannot solve, so we complete each other. I sometimes don’t feel like studying but my friends force me to study and I thank them for that. Because sometimes one needs motivation and friends are there at this time.
Finally, we can say that classmates are an important influence on a child’s success in school. The important point is that how they influence a child’s success. And as long as we have good friends, they play an important role in our success.
(b) One of the most important things in our lives is a learning process – school, college, and university. There are many problems that appear, and only you must make a right decision. But in this process it is important to have friends that can help you. In this essay I will argue that classmates are a more important influence than parents on a child’s success in school.
First of all, to have more influence means to know every detail in one’s problem. For example, when you have such problem as the relationship between you and another student or teacher, only a well-informed person can advise you. In my view, in this situation your classmates are more close to you than your parents. Your classmates can understand you because they are in your age, also.
In the other hand, classmate’s influence means a contest between the students. It is known that our life is a competition in which each of us is a competitor. In my opinion, when I see that my classmate is better than I in one subject, it means that I need to work on my knowledge in it. It depends on me.
Another reason in favor of my opinion is that my classmate’s thoughts are very important for me, even if I feel that they are not good. The adolescence is a time when you begin your own life. It is a time when you may don’t want to hear your parents’ advice. However, it is naturally. That is why classmates are a more important influence than parents on a child.
In conclusion, everyone himself must decide how to behave in this life. But in our society, where democracy and independence are value, we always will have to make our own decisions.
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