Should students spend more time in school, rather then given homework.

I will be arguing that students should continue to be given homework that they will have to finish after school hours. As such, I am for NOT increasing time spent in school, in fact I propose that students should spend LESS time in school. First off, rebuttals. My opponent provided a link to an article which discusses how a certain research shows that homework does more harm than good. First of all, in my opinion, this article does not at all show how homework causes MORE harm than the good it brings. Yes, maybe it does make a compelling argument about the BAD EFFECTS of homework, but there is no way to properly QUANTIFY the magnitude of the bad effects of homework, nor to compare the scale of these bad effects with the good effects that homework no doubt brings. There are probably hundreds of other such research that will claim how effective homework is for the development of students and to bring families closer when parents help out with their kids' homework. My point is that it is not enough for my opponent to bring out some research about how bad homework is for children. Rather, he should make a more compelling comparative analysis of how a student will be much better off with no homework and more time in school. Notice also that my opponent seems to think that just because students spend more time in school, this would eliminate the need for homework. If my opponent does not like homework, why don't just introduce a school system where homework is banned? Why should we increase school hours just because we don't like homework? My opponent does not attempt to make any clear link as to how less homework should come hand in hand with more school hours. He finally suggest students should have to be in school one or two hours earlier than normal. Basically, just because he hates homework, he would rather force students to get up earlier in a world where children are already not having enough sleeping hours due to the abundance of activities they have to do on a daily basis, which does not only include homework but also extra-curricular activities where many students are expected to stay back after school. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I will now start with my arguments. Students should be given homework because it provides an opportunity for parents to not only assess how their kids are coping with subject material, but to encourage parents' participation in their kids' lives. I have already alluded to this point in the rebuttals I made earlier. And this ties perfectly in with why I think school hours should be reduced. When school hours are reduced, kids will have more time to be at home with their parents and more time for them to do the schoolwork together. I understand that I may sound too idealistic and there are so many factors that have to be present for this supposed parent-child interaction to take place. However, I feel that the alternative is an even worst off scenario. The alternative (as my opponent has worded in the title of this motion and in his arguments) is that these kids spend more time in school. When you do this, you are effectively saying goodbye to parent-child time together. There is absolutely no way for parents to engage and contribute to the development of the child when the child's whole day is spent in school and most adults are working (except probably on the weekends). I think I have written fairly a lot as compared to what my opponent has done. I feel he has not made much effort as yet on his part.