Writing for Academic Education Should there be age restrictions on university education?

Writing Topic: Should there be age restrictions on university education? (education)

☆Let’s Think

Discuss the topic regarding the following words.

・lifelong learning

・career change　

・equality and access to education

・diverse perspectives　

・budget constraints

 

 

☆Hints for Points

Lifelong Learning: Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of learning for either personal or professional reasons. Lifelong learning is important for an individual's competitiveness and employability, but also enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development. Professions typically recognize the importance of developing practitioners becoming lifelong learners. Many licensed professions mandate that their members continue learning to maintain a license. Lifelong learning institutes are educational organizations specifically for lifelong learning purposes. Informal lifelong learning communities also exist around the world.  ―Wikipeda

 

Career Change: 11% of U.S. adults are considering going back to school for career change. ―Google search

 

Equality and Access to Education: A society must be brought into being in which the people can continue to learn throughout their lives, an all occasions and in all places, and in which they can suitably apply the outcomes of their lifelong learning to refine themselves and lead fulfilling lives. ―Basic Act on Education of Japan, Article 3

 

Diverse Perspectives: Mature students can provide viewpoints that are different from those of young students and help deepen discussions and understanding of the subjects. Older students can also provide younger students with advise on various matters in life in college life.

 

Budget Constraints: Necessary facilities and subjects of interest of elderlies are different from those of young people. Universities may have difficulties in spendingextra resources to meet the needs of older students.

 

 

☆Sample Answer for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】No one is too old to learn, as the cliché goes. A number of adults want to restart learning. Therefore, there should not be age restrictions on university education.

【Supporting Details】Most people keep learning after graduation. Workers constantly need to update their knowledge and skills. Huge corporations have their employees take training courses and Master’s degrees. Homemakers who have finished child-rearing or people who want to change careers may want to resume studies to equip themselves with degrees before going back to work. Also, people who missed the opportunity to go to university for some reason like financial one may want to go to university later in life. Besides, aging society is potentially full of senior citizens who have time and money to return to school. Universities must accommodate the needs.

【Counterargument-treatment】I understand the point of Alex is that needs of young students should be prioritized in using the limited resources of university so that they can get ready to work, and I totally agree with him. However, age restriction in acceptance is another matter. It is age discrimination and unconstitutional in that it violates elderlies’ rights to have a healthy and cultural life and pursue happiness. In terms of resources, universities can take full care of young students without excluding older people from the campus.

【Conclusion】In reality, there can be problems if the number of mature students increase, but this must not be the reason to rid them of the right to learn. (242 words)

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

Writing for Academic Discussion Does technology help us understand ourselves better? - revised -

Does technology help us understand ourselves better, or does it hinder our self-awareness? (technology)

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        What does “to understand ourselves” mean?   Note: To understand ourselves may mean to understand what is a human as well as what kind of person you are. It could also mean where we come from, where we are, and what is important in life.

 

2.        How do we understand ourselves? Does technology help us do it?   Note: To understand ourselves, we need to be objective, compare ourselves with others, and have plenty of information.

 

 

☆Hints for Points

Technology helps us understand ourselves better:

1.        Accurate information about the universe and life is collected by technology. Studies of humanities are also helped by technology like DNA analysis.

 

2.        Watching the world and people leads to understanding of ourselves. The media, especially social media, provide us with abundant information about them, giving us opportunities to have insights about humans. YouTube videos show us we humans can be both brave and cowardly, angelic and evil.

 

3.        Interaction with other people helps us understand ourselves, and technology increases the opportunity to interact with others. For example, by communicating with others through social media, you can learn what kind of person you are.

 

4.        Technology helps find individual properties. For example, DNA analysis shows you what kind of people you are related to, what kind of property your body has, and whether you have the risk factor of a particular disease or not.

 

Technology hinders our self-awareness:

1.        Technology deals with matter, the physical side of the world, so it can tell us only about our physical aspects.

 

2.        The smartphone does not tell you what kind of person you really are. Apps can tell you what type of personality you have, but this categorization does not lead to real understanding of yourself.

 

3.        Information gained through technology might be distracting us from self-reflection. We think we have understood ourselves by watching television news shows and reading posts on social media and do not explore ourselves more deeply.

 

4.        Social media can distort our image of ourselves. It is easy to wear a persona online and we can believe it our real character. Also, when we should be satisfied with life just by being alive, many of us suffer from the gap between what we think we should be and what we actually are by comparing ourselves with others, even though those others might be making themselves look better than they really are.

 

 

☆Sample Answer for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】Data analysis of the 2024 U.S. presidential election failed to predict the result. It said the people were more liberal than ever but they elected a dictator. Technology failed to predict that so many more men than usual came out to vote for Trump and block the abortion right and the first female president. I agree that technology helps us understand ourselves, but with a reservation. It only scratches surface and prevents us from delving into our own being in the real.

【Supporting Details】Technological development has helped us collect information to understand humans such as where in the universe we are and what we are made of and how our body works. Now we know that we live on a planet that is orbiting the sun in our solar system which is a tiny part of the galaxy, which is a tiny part of an ever-expanding space. It has shown that the first human was in Africa and that all humans are brothers and sisters. It has also been finding out what is in our cells and atoms, and we all know that we are made up of the same elements that are in the outer space. Apps can also analyze our characteristics.

【Reservation】However, technology can only investigate the materialistic side of humans while what makes up humans is our mind rather than our body. It can quantify phenomena or behavior, but the findings are fragmented and superficial. Technology cannot help us organically learn about ourselves or people and society. To do it, we need to actually live in this world and interact with other humans and nature or read writings to intelligently interact with other minds, but we are increasingly living individually in the virtual world and are getting out of touch. Our memory and wisdom as human race passed down among us are now being lost as we lose face-to-face communication and read good writings less often, absorbed in information on online platforms, which is useless, meaningless, or deceptive.

【Conclusion】Although remarkable discoveries about us are being made thanks to technology, we might be losing insight into ourselves now. (349 words)

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

 

 

 

Writing for Academic Discussion Does technology help us understand ourselves better? - revised -

Does technology help us understand ourselves better, or does it hinder our self-awareness? (technology)

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        What does “to understand ourselves” mean?

Note: To understand ourselves may mean to understand what is a human as well as what kind of person you are. It could also mean where we come from, where we are, and what is important in life.

 

2.        How do we understand ourselves? Does technology help us do it?

Note: To understand ourselves, we need to be objective, compare ourselves with others, and have plenty of information.

 

 

☆Hints for Points

Technology helps us understand ourselves better:

1.        Accurate information about the universe and life is collected by technology. Studies of humanities are also helped by technology like DNA analysis.

 

2.        Watching the world and people leads to understanding of ourselves. The media, especially social media, provide us with abundant information about them, giving us opportunities to have insights about humans. YouTube videos show us we humans can be both brave and cowardly, angelic and evil.

 

3.        Interaction with other people helps us understand ourselves, and technology increases the opportunity to interact with others. For example, by communicating with others through social media, you can learn what kind of person you are.

 

4.        Technology helps find individual properties. For example, DNA analysis shows you what kind of people you are related to, what kind of property your body has, and whether you have the risk factor of a particular disease or not.

 

Technology hinders our self-awareness:

1.        Technology deals with matter, the physical side of the world, so it can tell us only about our physical aspects.

 

2.        The smartphone does not tell you what kind of person you really are. Apps can tell you what type of personality you have, but this categorization does not lead to real understanding of yourself.

 

3.        Information gained through technology might be distracting us from self-reflection. We think we have understood ourselves by watching television news shows and reading posts on social media and do not explore ourselves more deeply. For example, technology told us that we had conquered nature, when we were actually disrupting nature by technology and we are now getting backlash from nature.

 

4.        Social media can distort our image of ourselves. It is easy to wear a persona online and we can believe it our real character. Also, when we should be satisfied with life just by being alive, many of us suffer from the gap between what we think we should be and what we actually are by comparing ourselves with others, even though those others might be making themselves look better than they really are.

 

 

☆Sample Answer for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】I agree that technology helps us understand ourselves but with a reservation. It only scratches our surface, and it prevents us from delving into our own being in the real world.

【Supporting Details】Technological development has helped us collect information to understand humans such as where in the universe we are and what we are made of and how our body works. Now we know that we live on a planet that is orbiting the sun in our solar system which is a tiny part of the galaxy, which is a tiny part of an ever-expanding space. It has shown that the first human was in Africa and that all humans are brothers and sisters. It has also been finding out what is in our cells and atoms, and we all know that we are made up of the same elements that are in the outer space. Apps can also analyze our characteristics.

【Reservation】However, technology can only investigate the materialistic side of humans while what makes up humans is our mind rather than our body. It can quantify phenomena or behavior, but the findings are fragmented and superficial. Technology cannot help us organically learn about ourselves or people and society. To do it, we need to actually live in this world and interact with other humans and nature or read writings to intelligently interact with other minds, but we are increasingly living individually in the virtual world and are getting out of touch. Our memory and wisdom as human race passed down among us are now being lost as we lose face-to-face communication and read good writings less often, absorbed in information on online platforms, which is useless, meaningless, or deceptive.

【Conclusion】Although remarkable discoveries about us are being made thanks to technology, we might be losing insight into ourselves now. (298 words)

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT