writing exercise Jul 19th

(question)
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.

(answer)
Some say that parents have a influence on the success of their children because parents bring up their children since their children were born, while others think that the children are impressed by their classmates more than parents. In my opinion, the latter one is true, so I agree with the statement which is mentioned in the question. This is because of the following reasons. Firstly, classmates are best partners for children. Secondly, children study hard if they have rivals. This essay will discuss these reasons in further detail.

One of the good aspects of classmates is that they may be the best partners for children. Classmates are the same age, so they tend to have similar worries about study, their future and so on. In that case, children can consult with classmates and feel it easy if they share their worries. For example, when I was a high school student, I was worried that I could not understand mathematics very much. Some day, I found friends who also have trouble with math. We decided to start studying mathematics together after class. When we could not understand in spite of thinking a lot, we asked my classmate who was good at mathematics. It helped me understand mathematics very much, and finally I got a high grade on mathematics.

Another advantage of having classmates is that they could be the best rivals for children. Children often feel studying boring, so if children want to continue studying at stable pace, they need rivals who they compete with. If they have rivals, children want not to lose by them, and they study harder. For instance, when I was a junior high school student, I had a great rival. He was much better at memorizing than me, and he always got good grades without studying hard. On the other hand, I was not good at learning by heart, I had a strong incentive that I wanted to win my rival, so I studied much harder than my rival. When I got better grades than my rival had, I felt very happy and I appreciated it that I had a great rival.

In conclusion, I think classmates have more influence on a child's success in school because it is important to have friends that a child can count on if he or she has a worry. Moreover, it often happens that children feel it boring to study hard. In this sense, classmates are beneficial because they could be the best rivals of children and they would be the incentive that children study hard not to lose by rivals. I do not have children now, but when I have my children someday, I will strongly recommend my children to have good friends who will be the rivals for them.