IELTS Essay # 14 - Some people believe all children should be taught together. Others say that they should be separated according to academic abilities. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Essay # 14

Some people believe all children should be taught together. Others say that they should be separated according to academic abilities. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

The mental abilities of students differ from one another. This may be why some people feel they should be taught separately; it may help them learn and perform better. However there are quite a few drawbacks to this arrangement too.

If students with similar abilities are taught together, they might stop challenging each other in terms of pushing their potentials. For example, weaker students might find their comfort zone and cease to improve as they should've done in a class with students better than them. Similarly, intelligent students taught together might develop a sense of superiority, and might scorn people weaker than them as they haven't been taught how to adjust with and regard people with different abilities.

It is also true that when both weak and strong students are together in a class, difficulties might arise for both these groups as a slower pace of learning will make smarter students impatient; on the other hand a faster pace might be overwhelming for weaker students. But on the whole, I believe the concept of a classroom is for students to realize their potential and work accordingly, harmoniously, not undermining or getting influenced by their classmates.

The thing that can be done here is that the teacher should adopt a balanced teaching strategy for the class so that no student feels odd. A sense of mutual respect needs to be inculcated in children for them to become better adults, and that won't come if they stay around like-minded students only. Stronger students helping their weaker fellows might seed the start of a healthy friendship. This also teaches weak students to be expressive about their issues without feeling embarrassed.

In conclusion, I believe that the idea of separate classrooms for children with different capabilities might only end up into us spoon-feeding them even further. The traditional method of teaching all students together is definitely more favourable and helpful for students, even in the long run.

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