Homework Should Be Banned

It seems my opponent has forfeited, oh well! I shall continue :DThe following are my three arguments for why homework should not be banned:R1) It helps retain memory of what you learnedR2) It helps you perform better on standardized testsR3) It can prepare you for collegeR1)My first claim is that doing homework helps you retain memory of what you learned and reinforce those concepts. For this, I shall refer to this image: click="document.location='/OneSovietSoldier/photos/album/5872/39803/'" src="../../../photos/albums/1/6/5872/358772-5872-bmxgv-a.jpg" alt="" />What is this you may ask? Anyone who has taken an A.P. Psychology (or Psych. In general) will know this. This is the forgetting curve that Ebbinghaus studied his whole life. He found that the brain does not simply hold on to the information, during the first day the brain forgets over 2/3 of what you were learning. This is why he recommended acoustic encoding and maintenance rehearsal to retain the information. So how does homework relate to this?In fact, homework is actually maintenance rehearsal in disguise, maintenance rehearsal is defined as the theory that by rehearsing and repeating individual items, they will remain fresh in your short-term memory which will then move into the long-term memory stores as implied by the Working Memory Model.For others that don't know the Working Memory Model: click="document.location='/OneSovietSoldier/photos/album/5872/39802/'" src="../../../photos/albums/1/6/5872/358772-5872-d4q87-a.jpg" alt="" />For people who want this in English, if you retain something long enough in your short term memory (doing your homework), your brain will end up transferring that short term memory of that math lesson into your long term memory. Therefore, you do not forget the concepts you learned in class and you can do better at the next lesson or that test that is coming up (midterms anyone?). Homework reinforces the concepts you learned in class and helps you retain that information due to a disguised memory rehearsal.R2)How does retaining this info help you though? Well, according to an article by District Administration: "There is a positive relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes,according to a 2006 study by Harris Cooper, director of Duke's University Program in Education, which analyzed and combined the results of dozens of homework studies. The studies found that students who had homework performed better on class tests compared to those who did not. Twelve studies linking the amount of homework to achievement and controlling for other factors, such as socioeconomic status, also found a positive link. Of 35studies that simply correlated homework and achievement,with no attempt to control for student differences,about 77 percent also found a positive link between time on homework and achievement."As you can see, homework actually helps you perform better on tests. This is also more trustworthy than my opponent's source since this more than one study therefore I am not committing the act of a logical fallacy. If you want a quote from the article from the other end of the spectrum:"Further, Tai and colleagues study, "When Is Homework Worth the Time?" also found that sophomores who spent more time on after-school assignments did not fare any better or worse with grades, but did perform better on standardized tests. Based on our research,it appears that the most effective use of homework may be to help students sharpen their skills with things that they already know how to do, rather than trying to use homework as an extension of class time"There is also a quote from the article in my opponents favor. HOWEVER, it commits the act of a Hasty Generalization logical fallacy (read the first paragraph of the Case For Less" to see it.). Even with a quote (a little) in my opponents favor. It still proves that we need homework because tests count for more for your grade than anything else in Junior High and High School. You may be able to do the quizzes, but your grade will likely suffer if you do not do your homework. (I also speak from personal experience).R3)How in the world does just doing your homework prepare you for college? According to an article on the Los Angeles Times: "A poll of public school teachers finds that on average, high school students are assigned 3.5 hours of homework per weeknight, or more than 17 hours a week. Or that's the teachers' perspective, anyway."So how does a quote that is in my opponents favor help me?In college, you (may or may not) devote about the same amount of time to homework. The difference is that you get a lot more to do. In other words, instead of having to do one math assignment, you probably have to do more than twice that much. Being able to handle the amount of work you get in high school helps you prepare for the mountain of work you get when you get to college. If you can successfully time mange doing almost 4 hours of homework a night, then you are likely to be able to meet the longer deadlines you get in college for thrice the amount of homework. After all, life only gets harder from thereThese are my reasons why homework should not be banned. I may hate doing homework but it helps us all in the long run do well in our education. If we didn't have homework, retaining information would be harder and we would likely not be prepared for stuff later in life.Although my opponent has pretty much forfeited all points to me, I will let him respond anyhow and then we can get to the rebuttals.Good Luck!Sources:http://psychologydictionary.org...http://www.famouspsychologists.org...https://drvcourt.files.wordpress.com...https://loopa.co.uk...http://www.districtadministration.com...