You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Many people prefer to read and tell stories to their children and regard it as a good opportunity to establish a stronger parent-child relationship. Others, however, think that parents do not need to do that and children should read books, watch TV and movies by themselves. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1:
People have different views on whether parents should read or tell stories to children. From my point of view, this practice is more beneficial to children, although the opposite view does have some advantages.
It is undeniable that letting children read books by themselves would cultivate their independence. As they can explore the world of books by themselves, there is no restriction to their mind. Children can build up the ability of independent thinking in this way. Besides, more broaden information is available for children by this practice. Books, movies, TV have various information and some of them are very valuable knowledge. It is a good way for children to accumulate this knowledge with entertainment ways as they won’t feel any pressure on it.
Despite above argument, the way of sharing or reading stories to children by their parents has more distinctive benefits. Parents can enhance the relationship with their children. For example, the time spent on reading stories together is memorable and meaningful to both parents and children and they can have an open discussion or free chat with each other. Another benefit is that parents can provide an appropriate guidance to their children so as to keep them away from some negative materials which are overwhelming in the media nowadays. It is essential for children to grow up with their parents’ guidance.
To sum up, reading stories to children can enhance the intimacy between parents and children as well as provide some proper guidance, although letting children read by themselves can help them to build up their independence and acquire various knowledge from different channels.
[ Written by – Quan Jianan ]
Sample Answer 2:
The attitude of children towards the society is mainly based on the knowledge they get from books, TV and media. However, some think it is the responsibility of parents to read the stories to children, while others think children have the ability to read and understand the things on media, books by themselves. I will discuss both aspects in the below paragraphs.
Firstly, Parents are the first teacher to their kids. Parents are the one who will have a vast influence in moulding children for the betterment of their future. Parents can convey the right messages gathered from books, TV, media in a more precise way. Also, parents can broaden children’s view by discussing various elements of life by telling stories. Furthermore, parents can teach more the efficient method of reading books and gathering information from the media. On the contrary, too much influence of parents develops a dependent attitude in children, which reduces the self-confidence in taking decisions. Children will also follow negative aspects of their parents as they are not getting enough opportunity to think in different directions.
Secondly, children develop a unique ability of self-decision and judgment if they are allowed to read books, watch TV, media. This self-dependence will have a positive impact on their academic carries. In addition, creativity and imagination will be moulded according to their experience and imagination. On the other hand, children will accept everything without knowing the positive and negative elements which will impact their personality and future.
To sum up, I opine that, both approaches have advantages and disadvantage but parents have more influence on the development of positive attitude in children by guiding them in each element. However, parents should act in such a way that, the learning and independent decision taking abilities of their children are not compromised.
[ Written by – Prakash Chandra ]