It is suggested that primary school children should learn how to grow vegetables and keep animals. Do the advantages of this outweigh its disadvantages?

Sample 1:

Lately, more emphasis has been put on teaching various skills to elementary school students. To this end, some argue that it would be beneficial to teach them how to grow agricultural produce and raise animals. While this practice poses certain risks to children, I believe overall it is a boon to their development.

There are some inherent dangers in allowing elementary school students to participate in said activities. First, the physical toil of cultivating plants and taking care of animals may be too much for children to handle. Furthermore, they could be exposed to viruses and harmful bacteria when they come in direct contact with animals or soil. Second, when the beings that children care for die, it could cause them great trauma given the strong attachment to these creatures that they have developed. For example, it would bring a child great sorrow when the cattle that he or she raises are slaughtered for meat or when their pets die, even of natural causes. These painful and potentially traumatic experiences are what makes some people averse to the idea of letting schoolchildren grow vegetables or keep animals.

However, I believe the aforementioned disadvantages pale in comparison to the huge upside that could be gained from children learning how to farm and keep animals. To begin with, this experience instills in children a variety of virtues and skills, such as independence, patience and empathy. Apart from these practical benefits, having such a close relationship with nature will widen children's knowledge about the environment and foster their appreciation for nature. Last but not least, taking care of plants or animals gives children an opportunity to be physically active on a regular basis. The life skills, environmental knowledge and physical benefits that youngsters could have make a strong case for teaching them how to grow vegetables and raise animals.

In conclusion, the advantages of introducing children to gardening and taking care of animals far outweigh the disadvantages, and this practice should be encouraged not only at school but also at home.

Sample 2:

It is advisable for primary children that they should learn to cultivate vegetable crops and also to keep pets and raise them. I believe there are advantages as well as disadvantages. In my opinion, the disadvantages are more than the advantages in this case because I believe it is too early for primary kids to learn this.

On the one hand, if we see the advantages of including the studies of crop cultivation and nurturing animals in the small kid’s syllabus, they can develop a sense of responsibility which can help mould their characters to be vigilant and liable members of society in the future. Also, they would become more empathetic towards the farmer, seeing them working hard and learning that hard labour is the reality for us for getting to eat food. It can also be an alternative career choice for the kids when they grow up. For instance, during the covid-19 pandemic, many people lost their jobs and relocated to rural areas. Some of them found their farming and livestock husbandry skills lifesaving.

On the contrary, one of the disadvantages of this can be exposed to various hazardous pesticides and herbicides to kids. This, in turn, can cause injuries like burning, poisoning, or respiratory illness. Apart from this, children are more likely to suffer injuries inflicted by animals. Not only do they suffer from injuries, but also certain infectious diseases, such as rabies or scratches from cats to name a few. Furthermore, children need to study and gain knowledge for various career prospects. So if they are engaged in farming or keeping animals, chances are they would feel more interested in it and less interested in academic studies.

To conclude, knowledge of crops and animals benefits school-going kids because it allows them to value it. However, its disadvantages outweigh its advantages. While it can harm the kid’s health by exposing them to hazardous fertilizers, they can also catch an illness from the pet if proper care is not taken. Moreover, it will often distract them from their studies.

Sample 3:

Some today have argued that it would be a sensible policy to teach children how to farm and raise animals at school. In my opinion, though this would require enormous resources, it would be beneficial in terms of both physical and intellectual development.

Those arguing against this proposal point out the resources needed. In order to implement such an ambitious program, schools would firstly need land nearby where animals and crops could be raised. This might be possible within a school’s pre-existing grounds, but there would still need to be significant investment in infrastructure. Schools would therefore have to reallocate a significant portion of their budget, potentially reducing the money for crucial facilities, staff, and teaching resources.

However, the advantages for the holistic development of children are overwhelming. Students today spend more time than ever before passively using technological devices. By spending more time outdoors learning about animals and crops, students will better understand their position within the natural food chain. Over time, this may lead them to adopt environmentally friendlier, compassionate lifestyle choices such as becoming vegetarians or shopping locally rather than buying from large chains. Moreover, the work outdoors would necessarily involve physical exercise. Since obesity is a growing concern in most countries, this time outside could help to improve standards of physical fitness and establish healthy lifelong habits.

In conclusion, despite the money this reform would require, schools should adopt it when possible so as to achieve a more complete education for students. Governments should consider the long-term effects when deciding on such policies.

Sample 4:

The life of a primary schooler is full of exciting discoveries, and some people argue that children should discover how to grow vegetables and raise pets as a part of early learning, while others express doubt. I would say the advantages of such a move outweigh the disadvantages.

Many parents express their worries when their children contact soils and fertilizers during the process of horticulture. It is true that a careless child can harm himself when he learns how to use a shovel, and there is always the risk of being infected with harmful bacteria from dirty soil. Some parents also avoid giving pets to children, as the risks are many: allergies from animal fur, being mauled by an aggressive dog, or infectious diseases from exotic pets. Therefore, it is understandable that parents can be overprotective when it comes to allowing their children to touch animals or garden vegetables.

However, most of the above risks can be completely avoided with good hygiene. We scarcely hear about an incident of children affected by infectious diseases from gardening, and even those who are unfortunate to get treated quickly. The experience of growing one's first vegetable is surely fun, children will be excited when they observe their own seeds grow into a tiny plant, then a ripe fruit. It also teaches children about the environmental awareness and the sense of belonging to the family's garden and its living species. The same can be said to animal pets, too. Raising a pet can mean so much to children, since the pet can essentially act as another family member and the children’s friend. Practicing relationships with their pets is a good way for children to develop their communication skills with human friends.

In conclusion, it is better to let children grow vegetables and keep pets.

Sample 5:

In the age of technological dominance, some people, quite interestingly, propose a retro teaching style for primary children: instructing them on vegetables and animal care. From my perspective, albeit some obvious advantages, they will be eclipsed by this educational method’s considerable disadvantages.

On the bright side, lessons on vegetable and animal caring can bring certain benefits to primary students. The first rationale is that this educational approach effectively teaches them about essential life skills for self-sufficiency. Growing vegetables and raising animals are practical skills that can accompany students throughout their life. Therefore, should they learn these skills at a young age, self-sufficiency will become a simpler task for primary students upon adulthood. Furthermore, learning these skills instils a sense of responsibility among primary pupils. Taking care of vegetables and animals requires tremendous agriculture-related knowledge and efforts, which can be done by a genuine sense of responsibility from the grower. Therefore, upon the learning process, schoolchildren will be moulded into conscientious citizens for the society who readily take accountability for their works.

On the flip side, however, these merits will be significantly outweighed by the demerits, one of which is the hurdle in facility provisions for this teaching method. Agriculture-related skills call for actual live animals and fertile land areas in order for students to truly understand what is entailed in the process of vegetable and animal caring. This poses an arduous predicament to most primary schools, especially in urban areas because the above facilities are difficult to establish in city settings. What is an even more glaring drawback is the dubious application of these farming skills in real life. As the world progresses towards the technology-driven era, most students will adopt a more technology-related career orientation, which makes these skills appear to little avail for their future. Also, vegetables and livestock products are easily available; therefore, primary students will consider learning to grow vegetables and keeping animals a redundant task or even a distractor to their study.

In conclusion, although learning to grow vegetables and keep animals may seem a novel idea with certain benefits, its drawbacks are so considerable that it is worth a second thought. Therefore, these skills should only be optional at primary schools since students’ long-term personal development is still given precedence.

Sample 6:

The proposal that young students should learn to grow vegetables and care for animals is an intriguing one, with both its merits and drawbacks. However, I would advocate that the benefits of teaching these abilities outweigh the detriments.

Introducing primary school children to agricultural practices and animal care initially seems as though it may detract from their focus on core academic subjects, thereby potentially disrupting their educational progression. Furthermore, facilitating such learning necessitates significant investment, not only financially, but also in terms of time and resource allocation. These could otherwise have been expended on subjects such as math, science or sports activities.

Yet, the benefits reap far outweigh the cons. Acquainting children with agriculture and animal care right from their formative years serves to deepen their understanding of these practices, opportunities for which may dwindle as they grow older. Moreover, hands-on skills in growing crops and looking after animals can bring children closer to nature, fostering in them a love for the environment. This can, if nurtured correctly, encourage emotional stability and engender a wide range of perceptive experiences.

In conclusion, although there are certain misgivings associated with teaching primary students about farming and animal care, I hold that the positives largely outstrip the negatives.

Sample 7:

Some people believe that children should learn how to grow vegetables and raise animals in primary school. I believe this is an absolutely necessary life skill that all children must learn, and that there are essentially no negative sides to this argument.

Firstly, alongside sunlight and water, food is one of the basic necessities of life. Without these three things, human beings cannot survive, so it only serves to reason that it is highly important for children to learn how to provide themselves with the necessities of life. The current state of the world proves that globalisation only causes more problems than it solves, and therefore people must return to living in smaller, community-based societies where they are responsible for sustaining themselves, which means growing their own food. In many poorer, developing nations, this is still the case, however it is rapidly changing. Teaching people, especially children, how to grow their own food, is the first step back towards sustainable living.

Furthermore, learning how to grow your own food not only provides people with a sense of independence and freedom, but also helps them to connect with nature, which is one of the most effective stress relieving activities for people of any age. By learning how to grow food, children can learn about nature and will have a closer connection and better awareness of the food they eat. In turn, this will help them to make smarter dietary choices, by avoiding genetically modified and chemically grown foods that negatively impact their health, and therefore create societies of healthier people, which will have countless positive outcomes.

In conclusion, while some people may believe that there are more important subjects to learn at school, I believe that learning to grow vegetables and raise animals is one of the most important and practical life skills that people of all ages should have.

Sample 8:

Many schools worldwide have proposed including a new, mandatory course in which students learn how to grow vegetables and raise animals. Although there are some drawbacks that schools should consider, I believe this idea is generally beneficial.

There are many direct and indirect advantages to learning about these topics. Firstly, children can develop an appreciation for farmers after this course. Many children, especially ones living in cities, never know where and how their vegetables and meat are produced. After knowing the amount of work and care put into making their food, they can appreciate and support local produce more. Secondly, this course can prepare them for growing vegetables at home. This skill will become important should they find themselves in a time when supplies are scarce, like during the COVID lockdown.

However, that is not to say that this proposal is without disadvantages. Firstly, there is a chance that few students will ever incorporate this knowledge into their daily lives. With students living in urban areas, most will never raise livestock, while many living in apartments cannot have pets. Learning about raising livestock in detail will not be helpful for them. Secondly, this course can add more stress to students. High school kids are already under pressure to perform well in their exams; thus, schools should not burden them more. Students’ objection to the home economics subject is a sufficient example to illustrate this point.

In conclusion, I believe the advantages of learning about how to grow vegetables and how livestock and other animals are raised far outweigh the disadvantages.

Sample 9:

The topic of which subjects should be included in a school curriculum has gained increasing attention in present day society. Certain people are of the opinion that elementary schoolers should acquire skills regarding horticulture and animal husbandry. The benefits which result from social skill development and improved health, in my opinion, will outweigh the shortcomings of this practice in terms of disease susceptibility.

On the one hand, children might be susceptible to certain potentially infectious diseases. This is because many living animals and plants may be host to pathogens, germs, and viruses. Ringworms, for example, is a skin infection from a parasite caused by close contact between humans and infected animals. Hence, children’s health is of great concern when it comes to the application of gardening and domesticating in schools.

Cultivation and domestication, on the other hand, may develop greater children’s social awareness which will be crucial for them later in life. A child who learns to care for an animal and a plant may get invaluable training in learning to treat people the same way. They could, in turn, gain a deeper sense of responsibility and understand the consequential effects of their actions on others.

These activities, in addition, play an important role in encouraging students to participate in physical exercises. Notoriously hectic school curricula with academic exercises and homework are positively correlated with students’ sedentary lifestyle. Consequently, many students are predisposed to ophthalmic and osteoarthritis diseases. Moreover, this trend might give them opportunities to be more physically active and reduce the risk of developing many chronic conditions.

In conclusion, although growing vegetables and raising animals can possess certain drawbacks such as exposure to contagious diseases, I am more inclined to the view that the sense of social responsibility and a healthy well-being they instill are of more vital significance. Where possible, schools should only include these activities in the course designs.

Sample 10:

There is a debate on whether school children, especially those in the primary years, should be encouraged to plant trees and vegetables as well as raise animals. Although I see potential negative effects from this, the benefits still outweigh the disadvantages.

There are two worth-concerning issues when vegetables and animals are cared after by young citizens, including health risks and the need for sufficient facilities. Firstly, children’s safety might not be guaranteed when coming into contact with certain types of animals and vegetables because some of which naturally contain lethal pathogens. Some kids may be allergic to animals’ fur or feathers, leading to a threat of respiratory distresses when physical contacts take place. Secondly, a range of wherewithal is required to nurture those plants and feed those animals well. The irrigation and captive systems have to be put into work effectively to maximize productivity. Understandably, the complexity of those facilities may pose a big challenge to manage for children.

Regardless, the difficulties discussed above should not be seen as significant obstacles to restrict children from flora and fauna caring, due to the advantages related to awareness of a readily available source of food at home, a heightened sense of responsibility, and a stronger set of life skills. Children learning to grow vegetables and care for animals may see these experiences useful for their well-being, leading to better health guaranteed foremost, compared to a consumption of food grown commercially that is chemically fertilized. Other greater benefits can also come from the cultivation of valuable virtues. Specifically, children in the primary school ages may hone their sense of duty and patience, both of which are certainly useful in later life regardless of their occupation or lifestyle.

To conclude, the potential risks to let children raise plants and animals must not be underestimated but the positive effects are very clear through encouraging our youngsters to have experience with nature.