IELTS Preparation: children from wealthy families vs. less affluent families Topic: Children brought up in families with less money are better prepared for life than those from wealthy families. To what extent do you agree or disagree? (2012.2.9, 35mins, 277words) Nowadays, the issue of which kind of children would be better prepared for life-those brought up in wealthy families or less advantaged ones-has sparked off an intense debate. From my perspective, the latter ones would be better prepared. People who support affluent families claim that they can afford their children better living and study conditions. For example, while children from families with less money are doing part-time jobs to subsidize their families, children from wealthy families could be having lessons from private tutors. As a result, affluent families’ children might be better academically. However, this assertion has some problems. It is through part-time jobs that children with economically disadvantaged parents learn how to communicate, cooperate with others as well as deal with difficulties. Besides, they also learn from an early age that everything they want should be earned with great efforts. In contrast, children with wealthy parents would probably take many things they have for granted. Therefore, children from middle-class or impoverished families are probably psychologically more mature and ready for adult lives. Another argument proposed by opponents of poor families is that children from such families might lose the chance of education due to economic stress. However, this situation has improved considerably in recent years throughout the world. Most countries have free pre-university education policy. Even developing countries have applied many methods to subsidize education such as no-interest-rate tuition loan. Hence, this possibility is not as great as people might think. To conclude, I am convinced that children brought up by middle-class or economically disadvantaged parents are better prepared for life than their wealthy counterparts because they are trained to be more determined, strong-willed and persistent.