Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. You should
Sample Response
Teaching is believed to be one of the toughest professions in the worldthe toughest profession in the world. Not because they are in a physically challenging job or a hostile work environment but because they have a responsibility to shape the behaviour and the thought-process of children. Children have highly impressionable mindsextremely fragile mindsets and tend to imitateemulate the behaviour of people aroundsurrounding them. Given the situation, they are extremely likely to imitate their parentsprone to behave as their parents whom they observe every dayon a daily basis. Hence, in a way, parents are also full-time teachersteachers on a full-time job.
However, I do not agree with the statement that parents are the best teachers. Different children have different cognitive abilities and therefore have different learning stylesand hence different learning styles. Research also suggestsproves that in order to maximise the each individual's learning experiencelearning experience of any individual, it is important to tailor instructionfacilitate the learning process according to each individual's learning styleas per the learning style. Teachers are professionally trainedqualified and experienced in doing this job wellexperienced to do this job better. They have both the skills and the knowledgeboth the skills and knowledge to excel in this as compared to parents.
Parents, on the other hand, are not trained to understand their children's learning stylesthe learning style of their children. They usually use positive reinforcement through rewardsin way of rewards and punishments to discourage unwanted behaviournegative reinforcements in the manner of punishments to teach their children. In this way, they may unknowingly hinderend up hampering the development of their children by imposingenforcing a particular way of learning.
I believe if parents could be coached on different ways in which their children could be taught, they would be the best teachers.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response takes a clear, nuanced position and develops a coherent comparison between professionally trained teachers and untrained parents, using learning styles and reinforcement as relevant support. Its main limitation is that several claims remain general and the brief conclusion can appear to reverse the position unless its condition is read carefully; the slight underlength also limits depth. Add one specific example and restate the qualified disagreement unambiguously.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay gives a clear disagreement and relevant reasons, while the conditional final claim adds nuance but needs fuller clarification and support.
Add a specific example of trained teaching adapting to a child and explicitly conclude that parents are not currently the best teachers without coaching.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through parental influence, teacher expertise, and parental limitations, with generally clear paragraphing and linking.
Turn the final one-sentence paragraph into a concise conclusion that synthesises the comparison and preserves the qualified position.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of topic-specific vocabulary, including cognitive abilities, learning styles, reinforcement, and development, despite occasional awkward collocations.
Refine phrases such as behave as their parents and teachers on a full-time job into more natural academic wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are varied and meaning remains clear, but fragments, pronoun reference, articles, and prepositional constructions show recurring lapses.
Rewrite the opening fragment as a complete sentence and check articles and pronouns in every comparison between teachers, parents, and children.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. You should
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.