GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 209
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
It is suggested by many that young children should learn how to grow vegetables and keep animals.
Do you think that the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer:
Many people argue that children ought to gain knowledge about cultivating vegetables and keeping cattle. It confers both advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, however, the drawbacks it brings can negate its benefits, especially in this modern era.
Some benefits can be derived from young children participation in farming and livestock husbandry. To commence with, youngsters can develop a good work ethic through this. That is to say that they will see the farmers working hard and learn that hard labour yields results and can be pleasurable. Whether or not children become peasants themselves, they can carry the attitude into a future career. Moreover, they can acquire many soft skills through trial and error. Besides, a child can, this way, gain some experience which could be proven valuable in the future. For instance, many people, during the Covid-19 pandemic, lost their jobs and had been forced to relocate to rural areas. Some of them found their farming and livestock husbandry skills live-saving.
On the contrary, there exist many disadvantages to cultivating vegetables and taking care of animals by youngsters. The most prominent one is health hazards. To illustrate, it gives children exposure to hazardous pesticides and herbicides. This, in turn, can cause injuries like burning, poisoning or respiratory illness. Apart from this, children are more likely to suffer injuries inflicted by animals. Not only do they suffer from injuries, but also certain infectious diseases, such as ringworm, salmonella, and leptospirosis and these can be transmitted by infected animals. Finally, in this modern era, children need to study hard both in school and at home. So if they are engaged in farming or keeping animals, chances are they would feel more interested in it and less interested in academic studies.
To conclude, although children can develop work ethics, transferable skills and experimental attitude from learning to farm and keeping cattle, I believe that the adverse effect it brings eclipses its positive impact in the sense that children working in agriculture suffer a massive exposure to toxic chemicals and infectious diseases. Besides, it will often distract them from their studies.