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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)
/^t/The first factor that influences one's life appears at the very beginning of childhood. It is parents and I would tend to say it is the most important and the most influential one. Very often parents want to realize their own desires and plans "by" their child and they expect him or her to do things or to be like they dreamt to be themselves. They impose their child a school and later a branch of studies or they would like to choose friends for him or her. School is another institution that affects children and youth by its expectations. In case of school it is well seen that influence can be positive or negative. When high expectations for student learning are embodied in the formal structure of a school very positive effects can occur for at-risk youth. High expectations can encourage one or stimulate to work more. However sometimes school destroys one's individuality by forcing to giving up a subject one is interested in and imposing other ones. In such case school or teachers negatively affect pupils by imposing something instead of only directing and leaving the right to choose.