TPO-18 - Independent Writing Task Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Students are more influenced by their teachers than by their friends. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Teachers are one of the most influencing people on our children. The government should take good care of teachers as they play an important rule in raising any generation as they are the ones who are responsible for education and knowledge which have a big impact on any community. Sometimes they are the role model for their students. However, I tend to disagree with the opinion that students are more influenced by their teachers than by their friends based on the following concerns.

First of all, Students spend more time with their friends than with their teacher which allow them to be influenced more by their friends. Also, what they do during that time together has a big impact, with the teacher they spend their time discussing the class subject while with their friends they study together, go for different activities and they usually talk about personal life if they are close friends. Another factor that make students more affected by their friends is the duration of the relationship. They usually meet their teacher for the class period and after that they do not meet up again, however, the relationship with their close friends lasts for years, during these years, they develop common activities and hobbies that they can share with each other which affect their personalities on the long run.

In addition, In some cases the teachers are much older than their students. This difference in generations makes it hard to develop a strong relation ship and as a result they do not get a big influence from their teacher. In contrast, friends are usually from the same generation and they can understand each other very well. They know each others weaknesses and strengths. They know how to deal with each other during downtime as most probably people from same generation go through same problems and challenges. Another obstacle that stands against influencing students by their teacher is that students can not get closer to their teacher on a personal level as sometimes it is unprofessional for the teacher.

In conclusion, with all the respect to the teachers rule in developing a good responsible generation to help raising our community to a better level, I still agree that students are more influenced by their friends than by their teachers.