Parents are the best teachers because they are more special than everybody else;TOEFL

This is my practice for the TOEFL writing test.
I would appreciate some tips.
Thank you all!

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Parents are the best teachers.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

I completely agree that parents are the best teacher. Children normally think that their parents are somehow special and that makes them the most important people in the children's lives.

Firstly, the things that parents say have great power to their child. More power than any friend or other adult could have. For example, if someone tells a kid that something is wrong and they shouldn't do it, but his father told him/her that it was right, the kid will listen to the father instead of the other person, even if his father is wrong.

Secondly, a child normally spends more time with their parents than with other people, so their parents have more time to teach him/her than anybody else. They have more contact and more intimacy with their children.

Lastly, children usually mirror themselves on their parents. That's as important thing because even if the parents don't intend to teach their children something, they are always observing and learning by themselves. So, if there is a man that beats his wife and treats her bad, his child probably is going to be rude and treat girls bad.

All in all, I agree that parents are the greatest teachers and I think that they should be very careful with what they say and do in front of their child, because it can define who he is going to be.

Everything is fine...U can add some more explanations when you are stating u'r second opinion...TOEFL really doesn't care about how much words u write they just need relevant reasoning...

My self-experience..Scored 27 in writing!!!!!!!

yeah, I noticed that my second reason is undeveloped, I tried to improve it, but I just couldn't think of anything else in time. =/

thanks a lot for your tips!

Your argument is undeveloped. Why not add some examples?

If you write less than 300 words in TOEFL, you will probably loss marks.

In my opinion, the lack of clarification on what a "best teacher" is render some of your points irrelevant to the topic.

Your first point simply states the fact that children are more likely to listen to their parents than to strangers, not that parents are good teachers. Your second point states that parents have more time to teach their child. Your third point is a bit too much of an example "So, if there is a man that beats his wife and treats her bad, his child probably is going to be rude and treat girls bad", I would change this if I were you.

Although I do see what you are trying to get at in this essay, I would start off by defining what exactly "best teacher" means in order to clarify your essay.

.... best teachers.


... you have to explain what is this power. It sounds too ambiguous. :(


The appropriate word for this phenomenon is "imprinting". Childhood imprinting refers to the phenomenon that children tendency to adopt behaviors, values and ideals of their parents, just like the ducklings follow their mothers.

Thanks!
Awesome tips!!


So, I should just change "mirror" to "imprint" and the sentence would be correct?

Yes... that makes lots of sense.


Lastly, children imprint their parents . In other words this is a natural phenomenon that children tend to adopt behaviors, values and ideals of their parents in thier young days. Therefore, the parents influence is a vital fact in the learning process of children.

I aligned this idea with the topic which talks about parental teaching :)