Homework Is Unnecessary

[ REBUTTALS ]1. Con claims that homework teaches kids responsibility. He says when kids (don't) do homework, they learn that it is their fault and "NOT THE PARENT'S FAULT" that it is turned in late. Please extend all of my Point 2 arguments as a rebuttal to this contention. Respected teacher John Spencer notes, "Homework doesn’t teach kids responsibility. It teaches compliance. A better solution is self-directed, independent, optional learning" [1]. A student exemplifies responsibility when they take ownership of their own education and look to improve it by choice. Completing tasked assignments to avoid disciplinary action isn't necessarily an indicator of responsibility. Moreover, many of the alleged benefits of homework (such as teaching responsibility) can be acquired through other, more beneficial endeavors [2]. For example participating in athletics arguably encourages more responsibility than homework [3]. Kids have to learn to keep to a schedule, work on a team, concentrate, persevere through adversity, practice, and all while enjoying the added benefits of exercise, improved motor skills, better health and stress relief. However kids won't have time to pursue these other endeavors if they are saddled with homework.Jobs teach kids responsibility - should we mandate jobs for that reason alone? Just because something may (or may not) be beneficial does not mean it ought to be required. 2. Homework also provides kids with the ability to manage their own time.Please extend my Point 3 and Point 4 arguments as a rebuttal to this contention. A child's homework completion or performance is not only dependent on their time, but that of their family and care giver's schedule. Kids already "work" in school all day, and should have free time after school to pursue other endeavors (or practice their academic endeavors individually according to their needs or parental preferences). Some have pointed out that assigning homework in and of itself is a reflection of the teacher's own poor time management in sufficiently managing the curriculum [4]. Adults lament having to take their work home with them, and often suffer as a direct result [5]. We should not impose the same burdens on children unnecessarily. 3. My opponent claims that homework helps kids get better grades on their tests.Please extend my Point 1 arguments as a rebuttal to this contention. Con presents one source noting 5 or 12 studies that allegedly link value between homework and academic achievement. I've presented numerous studies contending the exact opposite in the last round. Here is some more research:"Students enrolled in college physics courses were surveyed to determine whether any features of their high schoolphysics courses were now of use to them. At first a very small relationship was found between the amount of homework that students had had in high school and how well they were currently faring. But once the researchers controlled for other variables, such as the type of classes they had taken, that relationship disappeared. The researchers then studied a much larger population of students in college science classes – and found the same thing: homework simply didn’t help."Philip M. Sadler and Robert H. Tai, 'Success in Introductory College Physics: The Role of High School Preparation,' Science Education 85 [2001]: 111-36. In fact homework doesn't teach kids to practice the skills they have been taught, but rather "drill and kill" information that does not develop meaning. "Learning isn’t just a matter of absorbing new information or acquiring automatic responses to stimuli. Rather, we human beings spend our entire lives constructing theories about how the world works, and then reconstructing them in light of new evidence. Not only educational theorists but virtually all cognitive researchers today “[sub]scribe to this constructive view of learning and knowledge. The kind of teaching most consistent with it treats students as meaning makers and offers carefully calibrated challenges that help them to develop increasingly sophisticated theories. The point is for them to understand ideas from the inside out" [6]. If I have to present even more research next round I will, or I can expand on why my studies have better quality than Con's. But the takeaway should be that my research should be accepted because there is no good reason to accept that homework's "drill and kill" provides a positive educational impact. [1] http://iserotope.com...[2] http://www.jstor.org...[3] http://alicekeeler.com...[4] http://jarche.com...[5] http://www.rodalewellness.com...[6] http://www.alfiekohn.org...As an aside, Con should not ask the audience to read his sources. He is supposed to be making the case himself and using sources to back up his arguments - not citing other people's arguments and presenting them as his own. If you're in the mood to Google readings, check out these which all provide data and research affirming the resolution:“Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement?: A Synthesis of Research, 1987-2003,” Review of Educational Research 76 (2006): 1-62.Valerie A. Cool and Timothy Z. Keith, “Testing a Model of School Learning: Direct and Indirect Effects on Academic Achievement,” Contemporary Educational Psychology 16 (1991): 28-44.The Battle Over Homework, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2001).