Student Essay - Park Sung Min, Year 11, International School @ Park City - Do we learn better from people of our own level or from someone at a higher level?

Park Sung Min, Year 11, International School @ Park City

Do we learn better from people of our own level or from someone at a higher level?

Who should we learn from? Nowadays, people are more and more eager to learn. This is because the more they learn, they more chances they have of success. As the demand for knowledge increases, there are more and more ways to educate ourselves. For example, we can learn from our families, friends, teachers or the internet. Out of the many methods of learning, the two main ways are learning from people at our own level or from people at a higher level. Which is better? In my opinion, we learn better from those at a higher level. 

To begin with, people at a higher level at more knowledgeable. They have more information and knowledge. As they are better than us, their knowledge would be more accurate and the content would be more comprehensive. So learners can learn many things. Compared to the people at a higher level, information from people at our own level might be inaccurate. It is because they might not have covered or learned the whole topic before teaching it. Therefore, people at higher level are more reliable teachers.

Moreover, teaching is the profession of those at a higher level. They have been trained to teach. Their job is to teach or to train those below them. We can learn things more easily from them. This is because they have gained a lot of information and experience as they have been teaching regularly. They can also provide their students with more study resources, such as question papers, than those at our own level. Thus, people at a higher level can guide us better because they are more prepared.

Last but not least, we might not be able to concentrate when learning from someone at our level. When we learn from friends or colleagues, we get distracted easily. They might stop teaching us and start playing games or chatting with us instead. We will not be able to focus on learning. However, teachers are usually strict while teaching, so we can concentrate on our studies. Furthermore, experienced teachers can make their students concentrate well because they have taught many different students. Hence, discipline is an important reason why it is better to learn from teachers or supervisors.

In conclusion, learning things from both levels are useful and helpful but in my opinion, to learn things in more detail, it is better to learn from people at a higher level as they are more knowledgeable, experienced and firm.