children should begin their formal education at a very early age and should spend

[Vsravan]

Topic : Some people think that children should begin their formal education at a very early age and should spend most of their time on school studies. Others believe that young children should spend most of their time playing. Which view do you agree with? Why?

Knowledge is wealth. There are many ways to acquire knowledge. Education is nothing but attaining knowledge in various fields. The knowledge that we gain through education helps us in enhancing our living standards and in managing our daily activities more effectively and efficiently. Ironically, to withstand today’s competition, both parents and schools are putting so much pressure on children that students are often forgetting the essence of education. Nowadays, more prominence is being given to grades rather than knowledge. Rather than enjoying their learning, students are feeling the burden of their home works. To make our children more competitive, we are forcibly depriving them their freedom and destroying their beautiful childhood.

Childhood is the most cheerful, pleasant and memorable of all the phases of our life. Instead of filling our children’s childhood with games, sweet and beautiful memories and unforgettable incidents, we are packing it with biology, sociology, mathematics etc. Humans’ grasping power increases with their age. As and when they grow older, they will be able to think in a broader perspective. In turn, they will understand various concepts more easily. Is it really necessary for a five year old child to learn about a computer? He can neither visualize a computer nor understand its usage. On the other hand, it is easy for high school student to understand everything about a computer. So in my perspective, while teaching about a computer is helpful for high school student, it is insane to pressurize a small child to know about computers.

Most of us are under the impression that games are not helpful for a child; however, games are one of the best ways to educate a child. By playing games with them, we can in fact make them learn many things such as number system, alphabets and rhymes. Games are the best way to maintain physical fitness.

Children have an uncanny knack of learning through observation. Hence it is imperative that we should take them to amusement parks, museums and zoos. Watching different arty-crafts in a museum, various animals at zoo and playing and socializing with different people at amusement parks make their learning not only more enjoyable but also more informative.

We are born to live but not just to study. Education is only a means which helps us to live happily. It is highly important for today’s parents to understand that education is a part of our life but not the heart of our life. By not allowing their children to immerse themselves in the beauty of childhood, they are in fact destroying their future. Rather than a class room, in my view, the best learning places for a child are: a play ground, his mom’s lap and his dad’s shoulders

TOEFL listening lectures: Who are not included as members of the Underground Railroad?
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Regards
Sravan
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Happiness is the every day sunshine of your life

[Minhajquazi]

Excellent perception of you which reveals your depth of knowledge in child psychology Modern child psychologists used to say this ways and advised not to get admitted in a school before at the age of 5 .

As we the most parents are more genius ,cunning not knowledgeable so they don't believe the tortoise speed but the ----?? Result is ridiculous , I know some parents whose children are in perils at the University level but once whole over the Indians best civil servants were the late goer to the school and practiced at home only -it is true history !
MinhajQuazi
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Quazi,(46) a writer, thinker & humanist
since 28 years.

[Luschen]

Is it true that in India, parents generally want their children to enter school as early as possible? I have heard of some cases where parents will lie about their child's age to allow him to start school earlier? What is the reasoning behind this? So that the children will graduate earlier and be able to support their parents sooner? We have the opposite problem here in the US with parents holding back their children so that they might have a better chance of excelling in their class.

[Vsravan]

There is an element of truth in what you heard. Here, parents commonly join their children in schools at an early age of three; however, not because they can start earning money, but because parents want them to withstand the heavy competition.

For instance, last year 300000 students appeared for CAT (Common Aptitude Test), which is an all India wide entrance examination for admissions into the top business schools in India. Even if we add up all the available seats in all top B- schools in India (IIMs, ISB etc), they won’t be more than 3000. So, on an average, 100 students are competing per one seat. This is just one instance. Competition is a common phenomenon across all sectors and everywhere in India. This heavy completion is what provoking most of the Indian middle class parents to join their children in school as early as possible so that they can learn more and stay on top of their courses or subjects. Parents are not expecting anything, such as money, in return from their children. Most of the parents here want their children not to go through the ordeals which they have faced in their lives, they want them to get a good job and earn money for a happy living.

India is quite different from the USA in many ways. While I am not sure about the USA, in India the socio economic disparities among people are very high. While on one end there are Mr. Ambani brothers, CEO's of Reliance flagship companies, who earn nearly $10000 per DAY( not month), on the other end of the spectrum, there are daily wage workers, who earn not more than $3 per day. Although our economy is growing at a healthy rate of 9% annually, profits of this development are out of reach for almost 50% of the Indians. Some of the foreigners like you, may perceive India as a power house of technocrats or as 'a factory' which produces thousands of software or elctronics engineers every year; however the fact is that, even today nearly 65% of the people in India depend on agriculture.

These facts clearly indicate that even though India is fast developing, fruits of that development are not being equally distributed among the people. Although our government is spending thousands of crores every year on education, we are unable to provide quality education to the people at the grass root level. While exuberant and energitic youth, abundant natural resources, unity in diversity are it's strengths, India is still struggling with many problems like corruption, poor infrastructure and inefficient leadership.

Few decades ago, no one in India knew the meaning of development. Today, with globalization, industrialization and Economic reforms brought in to effect by the Indian government, people know what development means. Those people, who didn’t know how to write their own names, are sending their children to school nowadays. Those people, who use ‘a thumb impression’ as their signature, want their children not to have the same fate as themselves. They want him to study so that he can get a good job, earn better salary and lead his life happily.

Ironically, most of the times, this enthusiasm is crossing the bar and impending their children to work very hard.Eventually, children are feeling more pressure and burden. While parents don’t want to leave any stone untouched and want their children to stand on top of their fellow students, not all children may be interested in pursuing studies but may be interested in different fields such as sports.
_________________
Regards
Sravan
======================
Happiness is the every day sunshine of your life

[Vsravan]

Hi Luschen,

Above is my response to your questions in the previous post. I took your question as my essay topic and wrote this essay. Although not in the list of 185 ETS essays, it is an interesting and contemporary issue. It took about 35 minutes, five minutes more than the give time in TOEFL ,for me to write the essay.Nevertheless, I hope my essay is sensible and answered your questions.
As usual, may I request you to please correct both these essays and let me know your comments
Regards
Sravan
_________________
Regards
Sravan
======================
Happiness is the every day sunshine of your life

[Minhajquazi]

Dear Mr. Sravan ,
Again I like to introduce with you , your naive comments is appreciable but should more careful as don't
forget the Tagore's writing over how to free and when to resist at time .place and persons .
I visited almost 11 countries and found over free have tremendous cost as you can not realize at this stage yet.
Your grammatical abilities is better than I ,so would you give a 'eye views 'on my topics -Should we only need the meritorious guys from the school ? please indicate me where the problem is still lies ! Again greetings from Dhaka.
MQuazi
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Quazi,(46) a writer, thinker & humanist
since 28 years.

[Babo]

Hi Vsravan your essay is quite impressive. I think you should replace stone untouched with the stone unturned.
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Never give up trying, if you want to achieve something in life.