Field-trips from school - Good or bad?

Some people believe that children should have important lessons other than classes in schools, that is, visiting local businesses or public buildings. To what extend do you agree or disagree?   

   

With the endless advances in every field in the modern era, education too is getting reformed in its own way. Many schools today often try to provide more innovative learning experiences to children by numbers of different methodologies. Among them, taking students to visit local commercial establishments or public buildings is one of the latest trends. This practice, I think, would be a significant opportunity for them to acquire skills and information which are not usually available in a school environment.

To begin with, classroom learning can sometimes be monotonous and limited, whereas access to ideas and knowledge in nonverbal and practical ways, by visiting outer places can make learning creative, fun-filled and more effective.  For instance, while visiting a public bank children can see and observe the real life practices at the finance institute and understand the working of a bank and other terminologies related to it in much easier way than studying theories about them. Moreover, due to the direct interaction with the objects and hands on personal experience, knowledge gained in this manner can be retained for a longer duration. For example, a visit to a local vegetable market can introduce children to various types of fruits and vegetables and children can retain their names and usages easily. 

Nonetheless, on the other hand sometimes children can take field-trips more as a recreational activity rather than an innovative learning experience.  This can defeat the very purpose of such trips, and therefore some parents are sceptical about such activities in school. However, strictly monitored, well-guided and well-planned trips at such places can definitely offer a lot more advantages to the learning outcome.

To recapitulate, I avow, although field trips from schools can be sometimes be taken solely as fun activity, such activities can offer a lot more to learn in a practical and easier way with proper planning and guidance. Therefore, school authorities should encourage children to visit local businesses or public buildings in order to make education a more creative and interesting activity. (335 words)

#My EngVish Academy (Vadodara, Gujrat) (082 6482 9179)

Technology in agriculture - Positive or Negative?

Some people support the development of factory farming and the scientific creation of fruits and vegetables in agriculture, but others oppose these developments. Discuss both the views and give your own opinion.

The inclusion of scientific approaches and advanced technology in the field of agriculture has changed the face of agriculture. Bio-technological advancements, according to many, offer lot of benefits in many ways, but the same is considered as a negative development by many others. Both the arguments will be analysed before reaching to the final conclusion.

To commence, out of many positive reasons one of the major arguments to support such revolution is the opportunity to fight against the scarcity of food all over the globe. To illustrate, many parts of the world has been suffering with the lack of enough agriculture products, due to various reasons like climate, geography or other natural or manmade problems. In this scenario, the scientific methods will not only help us to produce crops, but also to increase the quantity like never before. In absence of genetically modified food the people of such parts of the world would have to starve. Moreover, such technology helps us to transport these fruits and vegetables in easy way. For example, products by factory farming may be modified to sustain for longer duration and can be modified in shapes too. Japan’s square water melon is the best example for this.

However, on the other hand, such practices in farming may have negative impacts on the quality of the produce. Crops grown with these methods are often given some harmful chemicals to grow faster, which may cause fatal diseases in human body in a longer run. Sometimes, such fruits and vegetables may cause some side effects and in this case they provide more danger than the nutrition they provide. But on the whole, with wise and controlled use of science these problems can be eliminated.

To recapitulated, after musing over both sides deeply, I personally avow that even though certain drawbacks of factory farming or other scientific techniques need to be taken care of, for higher amount to produce to meet the growing demand, for making it easier to transport and to have limitless opportunities to modify the food to meet our latest demands, such practices should be welcome.

Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.

Custom means a traditional and widely accepted way of that is specific to a particular society, place, or time. Every nation has its own peculiar set of customs and traditions and in the era of globalization it is quite common to see the influence of different cultures from different countries. In this scenario, if I am to suggest something from my country to be followed in other parts of the world, from many important customs of India, I would suggest bowing down or touching feet of respected elders. 
Let me elaborate this in details.

To start with, this is the custom wherein we Indians respect our elders by bowing down to them and take their blessings by touching their toes.This custom is not merely a habit developed in our gestures, but this teaches us many things. Firstly, whenever some younger one meets some one elder to him, possessing good virtues, knowledge, power or good values, he usually touches his fit by bending down. This is a gesture of respect. This would develop the sense of respecting and valuing our elders or those who are superior to us.  

Secondly, this is not merely a set of traditions being passed from generations to generations, it has a scientific reasons too. As per ancient and psychological scientific approach it can be ascertained that all the important nerves start from the brain end in our feet or palms, and hence the vital energy zones lie here. Hence, touching feet of elders or superiors is a unification of point of shraddha and karuna, that is faith and kindness.When a person bend down and touches feet of the elder, this gesture would help him reducing his ego and increasing his faith in the one who possesses good virtues. Moreover, when any person whose vibrations are more will be able to transmit the same to others, just like in shaking hands. When someone shakes hands of a person who is low, by a firm shaking or hugging, one will feel better or there will be an substantial increase in cosmic energy, the same is applicable to this gesture too. Lastly, the elders also reciprocate touching ones head by their hands, which will allow the positive vibes from him to flow to the one who is touching his feet. Finally, this is something easy to acquire and need not any specific training or skills, so I believe this can be easily adopted by almost all the parts of the world.

To recapitulate, among many other useful customs from India, for numbers of vital reasons like showing respect, reducing ego and making positive feelings easy to pass, I believe the tradition of touching feet of respected elders or superiors, is worth-adopting for other countries.

Most countries want to improve the standard of living through economic development, however, others think the social value is lost as a result. Do you think the advantages of economic development outweigh the disadvantages?

Solid economy is one of the most desired goal for majority of the nations with a view to providing better life qualities to their citizens.However, there is also a belief that this approach can lead to lose the social values. Personally, I could not agree with this, as I believe financial strength is a must for the nation not only in improving the life standards of the people but also for making their lives more contempt in many ways. This essay will discuss both the sides of the argument.

To commence, economic growth will provide more comfortable and convenient life styles to people and this will serve many purposes. for example, if a country is economically stronger it would be able to provide higher standards of health and hygiene, education, medication, employment, entertainment along with safety and security to its people.This will lead to better circulation of money in itself and in turn it would help the government to balance economy in much better way. Moreover, if the people are accessible to basic needs by the government which is possible through strong economy, the crime rate would also get decreased. For instance, if we consider any nation with strong economy, like the USA, the UK or Russia, it is clear that the stronger the economy, the better the life standards people enjoy and the safer life they live.

On the contrarian view, talking about the drawbacks, it is possible that, such an approach may lead people to work harder to maintain their high life standards, which may sometimes cause hyper tension and constant stress or pressure which ultimately can destroy families and societies. Moreover, chances are there, where people would be greedier and will lose their honesty, kindness, cooperativeness and hard working attitude. Even some may grow negative values like envy and unhealthy competition among them. But on the whole, this seems impractical to think against the development with just a fear of this negative by products. In fact, a positive approach towards economical development, may help reducing the gaps between higher and lower polars of the society and can create a more healthy and balanced society. 

To recapitulate, even though there seems to have certain possible drawbacks of economic development for a nation, I assert such a progress would serve lot more advantages right from improving life styles of people to provide them better safety, security and future. Hence, I insist the nation should go forward with economical development. 

A person's worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and material possessions. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no longer seem important. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

In this materialistic era, lot of people judge others by the status they have in the society with regard to their job title and the things they possess in life. However, it does not in any sense claim that moral values or ethics have no importance nowadays. I would say that I partially agree to the given statement claiming people are judged with their physical assets rather, people are usually judged by the way they behave and responds others.

To commence, even though it is agreed that people nowadays get more attracted towards showy life style, it in no mean suggests values are dying. First of all, job status and material possession do not help much when one is lacking a good character or good family background. For example, I have neighbour who possesses almost all the luxuries of life and lives a lavish life but almost no one from my society has even terms of talking with him, just because he has been to jail numbers of time in some criminal cases. This proves people still value character and morality more than money. Secondly, even though we use to say people are selfish, in my life I have often seen many noble people here and there, who help others without any selfish motif. I have been to many cases wherein I got accident or some emergencies and people without any personal benefit have helped me, just due to their own compassion or humanity. We still find people doing charity, respecting honesty and hard work and our systems too award heroes on the basis of their noble values.  

However, sometimes it seems the amount of money and other properties people own are one of the most important factors in achieving higher life standards. Money does not only make people feel safe and secure but also allows people to enjoy luxury, with which others get easily attracted. To cite an example, people usually respect the person with higher life standard and financial positions quite more than the one without it. So, many people respect or maintains good relationships with them who have higher economic standards or higher designations just because of an expectation to get help in their personal critical time. But on the whole, who earns pure respect by his virtues last longer, even after his death if not exaggerating, that one earns by his virtues rather than by money.  

 
To recapitulate, even though it is easy to find many people running after materialism, I assert a lot of other people are aware that material does not help on a long-term basis, and so they give priority to an individual's personality, character or ethical values. (445 words)

Nowadays in many families, the grandparents are responsible for bringing up children. Is it a good or bad development for grandparents? Give your own opinion and examples.

In today's contemporary era, with changing life styles, the roles of family members are changing. Owing to the hectic schedules of young couples, their children are mostly looked after by the older members of the family. Even though it seems quite relaxing trend at present, in my belief it would have numbers of harmful effect in the longer run for the aged people as they may face problems with their health at this age.

To begin with, even though it seems quite relaxing trend for working couples, it is practically difficult for senior people due to their poor health at this age. For instance, taking care of children requires lot of energy and agility itself, whereas old age people are usually found lacking stamina or suffering with lot of other age-related problems. Hence, giving them burden of children’s care will surely put them in trouble. Moreover, I personally feel that the former generation usually have had already contributed enough for the family and they have spent their whole life for rearing up their kids, so now they should be given ample amount of time to enjoy their retirement and live their life for themselves, rather than giving them extra loads of rearing grand-children. They, at this age, ought to be given space to live a life free from any of such responsibilities.    

However, on the other side, such a trend can give an unspoken happiness to older people when they play with their children’s children. In my culture, majority of senior people have a common dream of playing with their grand-children, because that gives them immense pleasure. Moreover, sometimes, when youngsters go to work, their parents feel lonely and bore at home and are not lefty with any other better options to kill their time but spending time with kids, instead by taking the accountability of the kids they themselves feel happy as they can somehow help their over hectic children. But on the whole, this responsibility is good till they can really enjoy it and it must not be thrusted upon the old people just because they are idle at home.

To recapitulate, I strongly feel grandparents ought to be given their enough part to enjoy retire life at that age and must not be burdened with any more extra responsibilities, instead parents need to be more calculative in managing time and work to look after their children, to make them competent enough for the latest world.