Essays by 8-graders in the US
Mike DiFrancisco
What is a child? A child is an adult with less experience. In some
cases, children know more than adults, and might even be better at
running the world. When you are a child, everything is new and
you are open to new opinions and you are open-minded about
everything. When you become an adult, you lose that. That is why
children and adults are so different. A child will always ask
"Why?", and an adult thinks that he or she knows everything and
just accepts all strange customs and things without truly
understanding them.
It is the parents' responsibilities to teach their children everything
they know about life, and guide them. But sometimes, parents take
this responsibility and turn it into a right that they use against you.
They will think they are helping you by not letting you make any
mistakes, but really, by preventing you from making your own
mistakes, you really never learned anything, except, "Mom says it's
a bad idea to …" Of course sometimes a parent should stop their
child from making major mistakes in their life, but they shouldn't
stop children from making little mistakes that aren't harmful and
that they can learn from.
Back to what I was saying before, about how children are adults
with less experience. Children are smarter than you take them for.
And when I say they know more than adults, I also mean they are
more fair than adults as well. It is very unusual to find a toddler
who is a racist. Even someone in elementary school. But as we grow
up, we learn more from our parents, by hearing little conversations
they are having with others, especially at holiday parties, that talk
negatively about a group of people. Then, the child, wanting to be
like the adults, will become prejudiced. He will then take that with
him to school, and his friends will also become prejudiced. That is
how racism and all that gets into middle schools and high schools.
If only the parents hadn't been talking negatively about that group
of people, maybe, just maybe, that one child wouldn't be a racist. So
parents have the responsibility to watch what they say, even when
they think their children are not listening, because half the time
parents think they are alone, without little ears listening. They
really aren't.
Children, before becoming like their parents, when they are fair and
kind, would probably be better at ruling the world, or country, than
an adult, because of their characteristics. Anybody who is in charge
of a country, state, town or anything should above all be fair. And
in many cases, children are more fair than adults. So, what is a
child, you ask? I'm sticking to my story: An adult with less
experience.
Glossary
experience = erfaring
opinion = mening, holdning
customs = skikke
responsibility = ansvar
prevent = forhindre
harmful = skadelig
fair = retfærdig
toddler = lille unge
elementary school = underskole
prejudiced = fuld af fordomme
probably = sandsynligvis
in charge of = leder af
What do you think?
Are children really more clever than adults?
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Is Mike right in his opinion, that children are better at ruling a country?
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What is the deepest responsibility parents have?
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A child always asks "WHY?" and keeps its innocence that way. Can adults
in any possible way do anything to keep the child's innocence?
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Try to write a letter to Mike.
You might agree with him, or you might disagree:
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Remember Mike's key-sentence:
A child is an adult with less experience.
What do you think?
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Essay by a 8-grader
Engelsk for 8. klasse
Skole-forum.dk
