<p>This is the prompt:</p>
<p>Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>
<p>People generally put more trust in what they have learned for themselves than in what they learn from others. Few people, however, are really motivated to learn anything on their own. They are much more apt to learn when others are willing to teach them. Even though learning from others means occasionally learning things that are not useful or important, people are still better off when they learn from others
Assignment:</p>
<p>Is it better for people to learn from others than to learn on their own? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>MY ESSAY:
Many teachers stress the importance of studying in groups Teachers often state that learning from others can help a student learn more than what he knows, and more importantly, learn how other people think. The teachers are absolutely right.
Groups, a novella written by Kim Yong-Moo represents this idea clearly. In Groups, a young boy, Joon, is a underachiever, always questioning the importance of school and education itself. Always failing classes after another, he is severely ostracized by his parents who state that his is his last chance to improve his grades and bring honor to his family name. No longer complacent of his grades he studies out of fear for punishment. But to his dismay, he finds that he simply cannot understand anything the teacher says in class. Distressed, he asks his teacher as to what he should do to understand the material taught in class. The teacher advises him to form a study group. He scoffs at the suggestion at first, but his growing desperation forces him to form a study group. He soon finds that by learning what other people think on issues such as history, politics, and science, he can incorporate others ideas and shape his own views on various subjects. He and his friends have lively discussions, and by observing his friends study habits, he forms his own study schedule and learn more efficiently. He eventually gets top scores in his school and eventually becomes a successful physicist.
On the other hand, in the novella, Learning by Park Kyung-Sook, a student by the name of Jung, gets top grades in every subject, but sadly, is too arrogant to take in the views of others. When a friend of hers states his view on the British Empire, for example, she quickly dismisses the view as rubbish, because it wasnt what she thought on the empire. A very secretive and lonely student, she alienates her friends by studying on her own and by failing to take in other points of view. By always asserting that her view is the best, she becomes a rather unsuccessful historian.
As these two novels show, it is always crucial to consider the view of others. By doing so, a person can not only learn more than studying on his own, but also he can begin to accept that not everyone thinks like he does, thus giving himself the opportunity to reevaluate his thoughts on a particular issue. That is the important step in becoming a better person.</p>
<p>Please score out of 12.</p>