A Homework Ban Is A Bad Idea

"Bad idea" means "produces bad results". To suggest it means "an idea that people are strictly against" is absurd. What if there was a meteor headed towards Earth and it was going to destroy us all and we had the technology to destroy the meteor but because of some wacko religious cult that caught on everyone was strictly against saving the Earth. That wouldn't make it a "bad idea". I thought what was meant by "bad idea" was common sense.EqualityEquality should be achieved by helping the disadvantaged, not by punishing the advantaged. Good equality brings everyone up to the same level, bad equality brings everyone down to the same level. More Interested in SocializingNot every student. What about the student who is very academically-oriented? Furthermore, if a student is neglecting their homework it's the parents responsibility to get them back on track.CheatingCheating is already dealt with. Though a student may get away with cheating or helping another student cheat many times if they keep it up they are likely to get caught, disciplined, and if they are wise they will not repeat it. If they are not so wise in time they will face even more severe consequences, especially if they are cheating in college or in the business world. Cheating can also be detected such as if two papers have the same answers. For plagiarism there are websites that can be used by teachers to check it.Unequal TimeThe solution here is to offer accomodations such as homework reduction for students who can document extentuating circumstances such as caring for parents. As for poverty, if the student has reasonable access to a library and computers this is not an excuse, unless the poverty is directly causing the student to need to spend a lot of time working a job, in which case document it and reduce the workload.Schoolwork Still Involves Problems With Inequality, Including Problems That Are Worse Than With HomeworkEven a poor student being raised by highly uneducated parents can learn and do well on homework assignments if they put in the effort. Go to a library, read the books, go online. It is there for one who chooses to do so. In fact, with homework since you are expected to do it while not at school then if the student doesn't get it they can go online or into their textbook and go through the information until they do. But in class this is more difficult. Internet use often is not allowed in the classroom. This would exacerbate inequalities. The well to do child probably has parents who go out of their way to guarantee they are educated above and beyond what is required in school, so that child probably already has habits in place to go online and learn things. They may come into the classroom already prepared, already knowing everything that is about to be covered. A poor student is less likely to have these habits. When exposed to schoolwork they don't understand then they don't have the opportunity to go online, and depending on the classroom may only be able to go over text briefly before the teacher leads the class to the next point. The more well off students move on easily since some of what's being taught includes information they learned before the class even began its 1st day, while the poor students struggle. The savior of these poor students is homework. When given homework they don't need to "keep up" as much, if they don't understand something they can go over it as many times as they need and look up what ever is necessary for them to understand it. Some poor students don't care and won't do this, but some will. By eliminating homework we are taking that opportunity away.Wrong On CollegesMany courses require papers, essays which are indeed done at home. Some courses, particularly foreign language courses are highly likely to include homework in order to make sure the student practices it enough, which leads to my next contentionNot Enough PracticeSome courses, such as foreign language require repetition until a student gets it right. Not including homework means the student can go home and forget about practicing the subject. Then all the teacher can do with a ban is to tell the student "for this to stick you need to practice outside the classroom." Some good eggs will do this, but many students will think "it's not mandatory, so what's the point."Good Essays and Presentations Require Time, Sometimes It's Even Necessary to Sit On ItBeing able to write a good essay is important, particularly in social studies or english classes. If they can't assign homework this greatly limits a teacher's ability to challenge their students with complex assignments. The same goes for presentations. Thought and effort, which includes being able to get away from it for a while, let it simmer, and then when inspiration strikes go back to it is necessary for the best essays and presentations. Limiting the window where a student can work on this to school seriously complicates this and hence is a major impediment to teaching methods and hence learning.On Autism and Social AnxietyMy opponent says these students would be given special education so this doesn't count. Yet, not every single student with autism or social anxiety gets diagnosed. Furthermore, some are diagnosed but don't currently require special education services. Making the normal educational environment more stressful thus leading to them needing such services is not good for these students as the current quality of special education services is often poor and outcomes not good. Thoughts Through the Child's HeadMy opponent states "Actually,...vitriolic comments are not a concern."People, even adults much less children can just let something go that quickly. If the moment before the child was facing those things the child will still feel the stress and think about these things inside the classroom. The child needs to have a comfortable, relaxing place away from these stressors (such as their bedroom or a library) to be able to achieve optimal focus on his or her studies and meet their true academic potential. The Point Is The Real Problem Will Be UnearthedCon states that "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"The point is that if there is not homework they will likely think that the child just has poor ability or is lazy. A discrepancy between homework and schoolwork points to a different problem whether it be stress at school or conflicts with teachers. It is a cue for parents and teachers to ask "why is there this discrepancy?" and to get to the bottom of it. Without this cue the problem is dismissed as poor ability or laziness and isn't addressed appropriately.IEPIn some cases yes accomodations are appropriate such as the kid with ADHD who can only focus if he is listening to music. Letting a kid have an ipod in class(checked to make sure the answers aren't in there) is not a big deal if it helps the student to focus. Even when accomodations aren't made being able to identify that characteristics related to the work being performed at school are contributing rather than more general characteristics that would apply regardless of location makes it easier for parents, teachers, counselors,... to help the student. If it indicates stress, the parents can help their kids handle stress better. It may be a temporary problem, such as stress from bullying, so they talk to the kid about why they specifically have trouble with schoolwork but not homework and learn about the bullying and deal with it. Without homework they may think it's just their child's writing skills or some other general academic trait and put focus on that and avoid dealing with the real problem.