GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 122
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Some people say that parents should encourage their children to take part in organised group activities in their free time. Others say that it is important for children to learn how to preoccupy themselves on their own.
Discuss both these views and give your opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer:
Whether children ought to be motivated to engage in group sports or do activities on their own in their spare time is a matter of great concern for many parents. Group activities, without any doubt, teach some important skills but letting children play or do things they like independently also nurture their creativity. Personally, I think that doing their favourite activities independently has more benefits.
Taking part in organized group programmes has many advantages for children. One of the major benefits is the development of social skills. That is to say that children can learn how to live in harmony, share joy and sorrow with others and compromise in a certain situation. With group activities, children will eventually understand that not everything will happen in their own way and they will naturally learn how to back down or choose a different path. Moreover, teamwork teaches how to play someone’s role in order to achieve a common goal.
Conversely, children thrive positively when parents give them unscheduled leisure time. It also nurtures their creativity. Thus, when children devote their spare time to make role-play discoveries, take part in self-directed play, and heal their own bouts of restiveness, they can light their inner sparks. If play is child-driven, according to many studies, they can discover areas of interest on their own, develop creativity, and eventually involve completely in the passions they wish to engage; which in turn nurture cognitive development. Moreover, undirected and unstructured play helps offspring learn self-advocacy skills, how to live harmoniously, to negotiate, to share, and how to resolve conflicts. American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that unstructured play is essential to the cognitive, emotional, and social well-being of children. Lastly and most importantly, independent, creative, and child-driven play protects children against the effect of stress and pressure.
In conclusion, while organized sports are helpful for children, I believe unstructured free play is of paramount importance for a child’s all-round development. Therefore, parents should allow their children to engage in active child-driven play in their free time most of the time while also sometimes letting them play with a group of other children.