TOPIC 125

TOPIC 125: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? There is nothing that young people can teach older people. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

Essay 1

There is much disagreement over whether there is something that young people can teach older people or not. Some people claim that the older know everything better than the younger. Other people, however, argue that the younger can master something that the older do not know. As far as I am concerned, the older can still learn something from the younger even if the former know more than the latter.

Why do some people think that the older is more knowledgeable than the younger on anything?
The main reason is, people accumulate knowledge from experience day after day, most of which cannot be gained through books. For instance, an old accountant can handle many difficult accounting affairs while a young one cannot because the former has more experience.

Although I agree that the older can teach a lot of things to the younger, I insist that it pays for the older to learn something from the younger. In the first place, there is something that the older never know before. The computer is the best example. As we know, the computer was invented in the beginning of 1900's and was becoming popular after the Microsoft Windows operation system was released in 1990's. The older had rare chances to learn and use the computers. On the contrary, the younger begin to get to know the computer very early. No doubt that the younger know computer better than the older. When a person older than 30 years attends a computer course, he/she will not be surprised if the teacher is younger than he/she.

In the second place, the younger are more creative and imaginative. When the older do
something, they normally follow some rules they got before. It is true the older seldom make mistakes but they also hardly make something new. While, the younger do not have much experience and do not have many restrictions as well. They make mistakes very often but also can make something magnificent.

In conclusion, I believe that the older can learn many things from the younger not only because that the younger know more later technologies, but also that the younger have more creative thoughts.

(Essay ID: 387 )

Essay 2

Who says only old people can teach young people? We admit that elder people have much more experiences than our young people, and it is true that they can give us many guidance when we meet problems or unsolved difficulties. However, with the rapid development of a modern society, young people can also teach the elder people a lot. They can update new technologies for the elders, share attitudes towards life with them and bring freshness into their lives.

Since living in a very fast developing society, we need to make contact with many new
technologies everyday. In other words, we need to learn everyday to keep up with the latest development. For example, computers are now very popular, but we seldom see the elders to use computers. If they can learn how to use them from young people, they will definitely be beneficial from this new machine because computers have brought a lot of changes to our lives and made us experience a different life. Young people are known for their quick understanding and acceptance new things, so I think they can teach the elder about new technologies used in our daily life.

The attitudes of young people are totally different from old people. Mostly they are more positive and energetic than old people. They have a different angle to judge something. Sometimes the elders are passive towards life because they went through a lot of frustrations, on the contrary, young people are full of energy towards the life, they are always optimistic even though they met some frustrations. They proudly say because they are young, they can try millions of times. In some degree, young people's attitudes may influence old people.

Young people also can share with old people what they like, which may lead a change of old people. As we know, most young people like popular music or even rock-and-role. However, most old people hate that kind of music. But I have an example to show that young people can change an elder: I have a friend who likes Japanese music very well, everyday she plays this music at home. Her grandmother often asks her to stop the music and asks her why she likes them very much. My friend tells her grandmother about the history of Japanese music and shows a lot of clippings. Gradually her grandmother likes Japanese music as well, which made us so surprised. Now if we go to their house, we can see my friend and her grandmother listening Japanese music together and share the feelings as well. You must be surprised like me when you know the story, but it did happen!

So, no matter what age group you belong to, we must believe that everyone has something to share with others and to teach others. Old people can give the youngsters lessons and guidance, on the other hand, young people also can teach the elders new things and different ways towards life!

(Essay ID: 380 )

Essay 3

As is well know, older people have experienced this wonderful world a lot, and they are surely to have acquired much more knowledge about this world than the young people do. Gradually there exists a saying, there is nothing young people can teach older people. But actually I do not appreciate this statement. Young people need to learn a lot from the older people, but it is also reasonable for the older people to keep the pace of this world by the means of communicating with the youngsters due to the rapid evolution of this world. It means the older people also need to get something new from the youngsters.

Admittedly, from the standpoint view of philosophy, young people start to learn about everything from both the theoretical books and experiences, then they will grow up in respective way. They will put themselves into this practical world, trying to find and solve new problems. Also many new discoveries and principle will be found by the practice of young people. Only through their practice do this world evolve very rapidly. Thus everybody in this world can share the results of the social development. Otherwise, if no new things were found by the young people, no creative developments would be made, and the society would stop developing. It is not our expectation. It is just these new things that the older people are sure to be lack, so the young people have the responsibility to show the older people what these new things are and how they work. For example, the advanced usage of computer is just the recent result due to the rapid growth of information technology. Many older people do not know how to use the computer, those older people get accustomed to the traditional methods, and refuse to adjust themselves to the new concepts of this computer times. Then young people have the obligation to show those older people how to use the computers, because everybody in this society has right to enjoy the advanced computer technology.

In conclusion, on the one hand, young people need to learn a lot from the older people in order to meet the practical needs, on the other hand, the older people also need to communicate with the youngsters. Only in this way can the human being benefit from each other, and the society evolve rapidly eventually.

(Essay ID: 293. This is a 5 point essay)

Essay 4

Many of us believe that young people have nothing valuable to teach older people. However, that is not always the case. Young people can teach older people about technology, youth culture, and youth-related social issues.

Young people are usually better at using new forms of technology than older people. Children these days become familiar with computers at an early age. Older people can learn to use computers from young people. This is true of other technology too. For example, I taught my grandparents how to use a video cassette recorder when I was thirteen years old. They didn't know what it could do until I showed them. Now they use it regularly.

Older people are usually not familiar with youth culture, and younger people can help here too. This is important because it can help older people live a more enjoyable life. For example, popular music is generally youth-oriented, and older people don't always listen to it. However, when young people teach them about it, they may come to enjoy it. My grandmother, for example, never listened to popular music before! Introduced her to it. Now she and I listen and dance all the time. I plan to teach her about another piece of youth culture-rollerblading-very soon!

Of course, there are more serious issues about which younger people can teach older people. As with computers, today's children have grown up knowing about AIDS and school violence. That is not true for older generations. Here, again, children can teach older people about things that are important to everyone.

I know there are people who would say "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." However, it's plain to me that the young have plenty to teach the old if they take the time to try. When they do, I think both gain a new appreciation for each other.

(Essay ID: 222 )