Toefl - Classmates are more influential than parents on a child's success in school

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Classmates are a more important influence than parents on a child's success in school.

In general, most people tend to believe that parents are the most influential in children and certainly they are sometimes right, because children spend more time with their parents than their classmates.

In my opinion, classmates encourage some attitudes and sometimes help a child to define his/her character. For instance, when I was sophomore high school student, I really did not like chemestry. So I was reluctant to work on this subject. Also some of my classmates hated this subject. My best friend Juan did not understand nothing about chemestry, but he really tried to understand it. He was always searching on Internet or asking to the teacher or doing extra homework. He didn't get the best score in chemestry but he really motivate me to never gave up to understand and study hardly. Moreover, classmates affect children more than parents.

However, parents are always there for their children, being supportive, trying to guide and protecting. Parents may give a lot of advices based on their experiences, which give more credibility than a classmate.

In summary, parents and classmates are both important for every children in education.

-------------------------------------------

209 words, how was it? :)
Thanks!

... I wish you had a break and expressed this idea in two sentences;
In general, many people tend to believe that parents are the most influential people in their children's development. They are right because children spend most of their time with parents than with anyone else.


... First, you should express your opinion in the introduction and not in a body para. Also, your introduction gives an impression that you hold the opinion that parents have the best influence on their children. This is a bit contradictory :(