TOEFL® essay: Parents are the best teachers

[Kea]

I will be glad if you assess my essay

--------------------

Do you agree or disagree? Parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Undoubtedly parents really are the best teachers only in the early stage of their child’s life – they teach him or her to walk, talk, and have good manners. It is in their nature to give the best of themselves and to sacrifice for the sake of their children. But when it comes to giving advices or making important decisions parents often eschew to extend their power up to some limits. Moreover, as far as the educational matter is concerned they cannot always be good educators.

When a person reaches the stage of parenthood he or she is generally ready to give everything for his or her child – love, great patience and understanding. Although parents will not teach their children improper things sometimes they unconsciously interfere too much with their child’s life and very often overstep the bounds of the necessity. For instance, if a father thinks a boy is inappropriate for his daughter and is going to break her heart he should not forbid her see her beloved one because that way she will not be able to learn from her mistakes. What is more, telling a child what to do may prevent him or her from getting mature.

Another point of my view is that school teachers succeed better than parents in educating children. First of all, teachers are trained to teach effectively, they know a variety of teaching methods and know exactly how to cope with certain type of children. For instance, a parent will solve a math problem but it will be hard to explain to his or her child how he did it. Furthermore, parents often mistakenly encourage their children to study by, for example, giving them chocolates or promising to buy them things. Whereas teachers can explain them successfully why exactly studying is so important and crucial.

In conclusion, although parents are not the ideal teachers, they love us, care about us and wish us the best and really these are the things that every child is craving for.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two university professors