You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Today’s children are living under more pressure from the society than children in the past. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer:
In this 21st century, people are enjoying more comfortable life with better facilities, increased life expectancy and with more possibilities than ever before. Living standard has improved dramatically and the technological advancement has made our life easier. Despite these advancements and achievements, many people feel that their offspring are living under an immense pressure from the society and I quite agree with this viewpoint.
First of all, the competition children have to face in the school, home and even in a playground is far more than the past centuries. The society appreciates only the best performers and being the top scorer is quite a challenging job. The parents want their children to excel in every field and thus the childhood is far different these days than our forefathers used to have. Renowned and good schools have a limited number of seats and the competition for those seats is overwhelming. Parents want their children to excel in other areas besides their academic performance including music, sports, art and in other fields. They are often found to be forced to get involved in activities that they have little interest in. Thus the children in the present era live under constant pressure, fear and competition. The pressures are many folded- from parents, siblings, classmates, society and so on. As a consequence, they do not have a magical and carefree childhood our past generations enjoyed.
Obviously, due to overpopulation and scarcity of land, people are forced to move to an apartment rather than a traditional home. These apartments force children to have limited activities at home which include watching television and using the internet. In addition, these apartments have some regulations such as not to make noise or play and that is why children cannot enjoy their life freely. Moreover, in this modern world, many parents have adopted some western cultures and children are forced to learn or do some skills even if they dislike it. For instance, some parents force their children to learn the musical instruments to show their status in the society. Furthermore, nowadays the modern society is keener in observing what others are doing. Children are the one suffer a lot from this attitude and they are more vigilant in their action to protect their parents’ status.
Finally, the loose family bonding and parents’ priority for their careers often creates an invisible pressure to the children that has many negative psychological effects. The number of single mom and single dad is a proof that our family bonding in deteriorating in this modern era. Parents’ actions affect their offspring severely and any social and family degradation will have serious negative consequences on children.
To conclude, society is dynamic and compared to the bygone years, today’ children have more toys, electronic gadgets, the opportunity to learn and express their views but that does not make their childhood more enjoyable. The type of pressure they face is quite overwhelming and that has many adverse effects on their growth as well.
[Written by – Haisuhu]