A Homework Ban Is A Bad Idea

Hello! This is my first debate on DDO. I would like to thank everybody here for making this debate possible. Resolved: A Homework Ban is a bad idea For this resolution, I am taking the Con side, so I believe that a homework ban is not necessarily a bad idea. Since the Pro has failed to define this resolution, I will define "a bad idea" as "an idea that people are strictly against." The rest of the resolution should be self-explanatory. That would mean that I believe people should not be strictly against a Homework Ban. In addition, I will justify my position using the value of equality. My criteria will be that students should be given equal opportunity to do well in school. 1st contention: Homework is often not under supervision, and academic dishonesty is often promoted by many factors. Many students believe that homework is pointless and that their time is better spent for social purposes or relaxing. [1] As a result, Student A, who put in no time doing homework, can simply copy off Student B, who put in quite a bit of time. Despite the unequal efforts, they would receive the same grades. A homework ban is not a bad idea because getting rid of homework would allow for a more equal environment at school with less cheating. 2nd contention: Different students have different amounts of time to complete homework. The life of a student does not revolve around completing homework. Students also do sports, music, and other extracurricular activities that limit their time to complete homework. There is also the need to support the family that burdens a student whose family is poor or ill. These students all have less time to complete their homework in comparison to others. The differing available times create an unequal environment surrounding homework. 3rd contention: Homework is done at home, so people at home can greatly influence the homework quality. Parents who are wealthier and smarter tend to have a better home environment, and as a result, homework grades would just be a display of socioeconomic status. Students could have parents who help them a tremendous amount, so their homework would be better than those whose parents cannot help them. This is unfair, so in order for students to have a more equal learning environment, more effort should be put into schoolwork, and a homework ban would not be a bad idea. Rebuttal: My opponent is assuming homework is graded, which is not always the case. In many colleges and universities, grades are often determined solely by quizzes and tests. By believing that not having homework is a bad idea, my opponent is asserting that this system is bad. He provides two contentions (correct me if I am wrong): The first contention is stress at school, and he backs it up by claiming "thoughts about relationship issues, about bullies, about personal appearance often course through a child's head in the classroom." Actually, these thoughts course through a child's head outside the classroom. In the classroom, a teacher is supervising, so bullying, teasing, and vitriolic comments are not a concern. Rather, students are more focused on the material being taught by the teacher. Students are more concerned about these issues during break, lunch, and after-school times when they are actually susceptible to them. Students with autism and social anxiety are given their own special education in schools, so they do not support my opponent's contention. He also provides the example that parents might notice that these students have great homework grades but bad schoolwork grades. Somehow, my opponent believes that this will give the idea that there is stress at school. This example does not always support the contention because it may be due to other factors such as conflicts with teachers, which is a problem that can be fixed. It still doesn't support his side of the argument. His second contention is that homework can help diagnose a student's learning disability. He supports it by saying the problem can be recognized and an IEP can be put in place. First, I would like to ask, how often does this really happen? I believe the answer would be not that often. Most students just have to deal with improving their schoolwork. Additionally, how do we know that the student is not going to cheat when he/she is allowed to take the schoolwork assignment home? If students are having any problems doing schoolwork, they should ask teachers for help. This would diagnose the problem easily. Conclusion: I strongly urge the judge(s) to believe that banning homework is not a bad idea. It can be done in order to create a better and more equal environment for students because homework allows for much academic dishonesty and inequality. Thank you for your time. [1] http://my.hsj.org...