A Position paper on Banning of Homework’s

By: Jubairah B. Dacula

Introduction:

Homework is an important and valuable component of learning. It teaches the students

important life skills that they will need to apply even when they become working adults,
especially time management, prioritizing work, as well as values, namely responsibility and self-
discipline. By doing homework, they will start to develop time management. They will start to
allocate their time for leisure pursuits and completing their homework. Through this, the students
will be able to learn the value of self-discipline as they try to refrain themselves from playing
until they have completed their assignments. They will also develop a sense of responsibility by
knowing the need to finish homework in time and contributing to group work or projects. If
homework is not given at all in school, when students enter the working life, they will not be
adapted to the heavy workload and deadlines set by their bosses.

These types of practices making the thing worse, many people are starting to think that it
may cause more trouble than it is really worth. Having homework’s showing negative effect to
students’ academic as well as their home life. While the purpose of homework is to improve
students understanding and seem to believe that this homework will help students to academic
careers.

This paper aims to debunk the negative effects of banning home works; however, this
paper will also examine the positive effects of having home works.

Counter Argument:

So, the first argument is, homework can put too much stress on the child and family.
According to Professor Sue Hallam of the Institute of Education at London University believes
much of the friction for families is caused by increased amounts of formal written school work
coming home. Hallam has studied homework extensively.

It is possible that too much homework causes too much stress, and subsequently lowered
grades and test scores. The University of Virginia did a study on students with a lot of home
works: and they found it was detrimental: except for students who said they do a half hour or
more of math homework every night. Their math grades and test scores rose in math, but
everything else got worse or stayed about the same.

In response to the first argument:

It argues that home works “can put too much stress on the child and family”. This is
something I will admit. It is only logical. But I miss- and refute- any reasoning why homework
should be completely banned on these grounds. By the same argumentation, anything would
have to be banned, as there is a “too much” of anything.

The amount of homework is beneficial; leading only to one conclusion it is to regulate

homework instead of banning it. According to Tai, teachers need to be much clearer about why
they are assigning homework and what the homework is for. If teachers aren’t really
incorporating homework into their teaching, it’s unclear there is any type of benefit at all and it
actually may end up hurting students.

This, again, clearly calls for a regulation of homework, not abolition.

The second argument is having homework the stress may cause a decrease in
performance in school. According to Elizabeth Truss, who is a member of England’s Parliament,
and is in control of England’s education system, delivered a speech at the Oxford Conference of
Education about replacing homework with more math lessons to make the time. She wants this in
England because they are failing behind countries such as China. They believe it will help
improve test scores so they can catch up with China. The U.S is also in a similar situation, yet we
have yet to even think about a large reform, even though our system is out dated, being called a
“mid-twentieth century factory’ by some. Homework is not really needed if the US reforms
because they can do what Elizabeth Truss wants to do in England and more: they want to cut out
time-wasting subjects’ such as health and P.E. Homework would just be an exercise done at the
last few minutes of class, and teachers would be able to help in some subjects such as science.
In response to second argument:

It said that “the US can cut out tome-wasting subjects, such as health and P.E”.

Firstly, this is a plan by a politician. It is not backed up with any corroborating studies
that will actually help academic performance. So it is nothing more than pure conjecture that this
will actually help students improve.

Secondly, health and P.E are not time-wasting, as a study from 1999 confirms.

“These studies provide encouraging findings about the effects of enhanced physical
education on academic performance. Studies reported academic benefits, and one reported no
difference, in spite of 14-26% reduction in instruction tome for subjects other than physical
education”.

The third argument is when students don’t have the teacher they may not have enough
help. A student would do better with teacher help rather than having to do things on their own.
This argument is based off of opinion and it seems it cannot be backed by sources. It is opinion
based. And my opinion is that students may be assigned things they don’t understand, and
because there is more homework being assigned things they don’t understand, and because there
is more homework being assigned today than 50 years ago, and the homework is harder, many
people don’t put much thought it. They cannot ask their teacher for help when at home, and if
they go into school the next day with the problem blank or horribly incorrect, some teachers may
make the students redo the homework, and mark it late. The student’s grade would then suffer
because the teacher was not there to help.

In response to the third argument:

It said that “when students don’t have the teacher they may not have enough help”.

One essential goal of education is to make children able to work independent. They must
not be raised to rely on teacher’s help all the time. How will they ever learn how to pass an
exam, if that will be the first time they may not ask their teacher for help?
 Homework is necessary to try out strategies learned in class by oneself, so as to see
whether they have been understood. Even if the homework was graded, it would make no
difference in favour of the opponent’s opinion-based argument.

Let’s say we can ban homework. The student leaves class believing they understood the
topic, but they have overlooked something. There no homework to tell the student that h3 got
stuck, but he’s still stuck nonetheless. The next day the teacher comes up with a surprise test.
The student fails, never understanding why, his grades are bad nonetheless. So, banning of
homework will not solve the problem you propose.

My Argument:

Homework has been reliable tool in education for a very long time. Motions to have
homework banned are a phenomenon unique to the United States of America, where there has
been a strong movement against homework.

He international PISA study has shown that US pupils perform at or slightly below the
world’s average, making American system as it is not exactly a good example of efficient
schooling.

So in order to arrive at a reliable conclusion about the use of homework, we may have to look at
it on global scale.

My first argument is, let’s have a look at research. In 1989 and 2006, Professor Harris
Cooper from the Department of Psychology of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina,
conducted two reviews of a total of 180 studies on the topic of homework.

His findings were consistent in that homework is beneficial to student success, unless it is
overdone. “Duke University researchers have reviewed more than 60 research studies on
homework between 1987 and 2003 and concluded that homework does have a positive effect on
student achievement. Cooper said the research is consistent with the “10-minute rule” suggesting
the optimum amount of homework’s that the teachers ought to assign. The “10-minute rule,”
Cooper said, is a commonly accepted practice in which teacher add 10 minutes of homework as
students’ progress one grade. In other words, a fourth-grader would be assigned 40 minutes of
homework a night, while a high school senior would be assigned about two hours.”
 It’s not exactly counter-intuitive, either; the more often a task practiced, the better we get
at it. Of course, there is-as with ANY training-always a risk of overdoing it. But that is only
logical, ‘’too little’’- as with anything in life Abolishing homework would rob student of a
chance to be better in school. There can be no doubt that, and keeping people from improving
would impede their civil rights. Homework is thus important and must be regulated not to
overtax them.

My second argument is homework is an important diagnostic tool. Teachers have limited

resources. They cannot there for students all day, they need time to prepare lessons, review
exams and be prepared to solve conflicts. They also have a right to a family life of their own, and
should participate in contributed training in order to be able to offer their students the best
possible education. This means that ways have to be found to aid the teachers in their task of
helping children get through school.

Homework is an important part of this. Teachers work with their students in school
teaching them subject matter. Assessment of their progress is necessary to ensure that pupils do
not fail their exams. Homework is the perfect way of doing this. Students perform tasks without
assistance from the teacher, under conditions not too different from an exam. By correcting these
exercises, teachers can evaluate which students needs more attention and invite parents to consult
them on how to support their child if needs arises.

There simply isn’t enough time in class to watch every student’s performance. Besides, a
vast majority of students is afraid of exams, assessing students’ performance in class would be
just that: an exam. Homework is far less stressful, because it’s usually not graded. Mistakes
uncovered in homework don’t harm student’s grades; they are just a chance for pupil and
teachers to realize where work might be needed.

My third argument is homework teaches more than subject material.

Teachers have limited resources. They cannot be there for student all day; they need time
to prepare to solve conflict. They also have a right to a family life of their own, should
participate in continued training in order to be able to offer their best possible education. The
means that ways have to be found to aid the teachers and their task of helping children through
school. Homework is an important part of this. Teachers work with their student in school
teaching them subject matter. Assessment of their progress is necessary to insure that pupils do
not fail their exams. Home is the perfect way to doing his. Students perform task without ,
teacher can evaluate which student needs more attention and invite parents consult them on how
to support their child if the need arises. There simply isn’t enough time in class to watch every
student’s performance. Besides, performance in class would be just that; an exam. Homework is
far less stressful, because it’s usually not graded. Mistakes uncovered in homework don’t harm
student’s grades, they are just a chance for pupil and teacher to realize where more work might
be needed.

Conclusion:

The thing about homework is beneficial for every student. So, we should not banned
homework’s because it very beneficial for the success of students. Homework is also a
diagnostic tool and homework teaches more than subject material.

So, what the study referenced by my opponents says that despite all the claims to the
contrary, relationships between parents and school have improved over the same time that the
amount of homework has increased. A vast majority of students accepts homework and
acknowledgements its value.

The fact that teachers abuse homework has already been addressed by me. This clearly
calls for a regulation of homework. But again, there is no logical connection between the
amounts of homework increasing and having to ban it. As I said before: only because something
can be taken to the excess, where it becomes harmful, this thing doesn’t have to be abolished,
regardless of what it is. Claiming otherwise creates a false dichotomy: either to have too much of
something or have nothing at all.

I believe that homework is important and should not be banned. In conclusion, the need
to give homework must be considered carefully. Homework can be helpful in any circumstances
and it brings education and benefits.