Homework is immoral on a deep level.

Hey Harlan, You brought up some interesting points in your opening market that are going to be fun to address. You first point offered up the suggestion that we stay in school an extra two hours every day to eliminate homework. While that is a good suggestion in principle you must realize that it is unrealistic. If you look at the overall homework structure in middle school and high school you realize the that bulk of the homework comes from four classes: Math, Science, History, and English. Other classes such as PE, art, and other "elective" classes have very little homework. By spending an extra two hours in school everyday we would be extending the schedule of every class not just the ones where homework is an issue. This would actually increase the time spent in school and on homework because we would still have the same amount of work from all classes but an increased time spent classes where extra time is not needed. Now to tackle your second point. You mention that homework is being assigned to first graders and that their homework is silly and pointless. If you refer to my opening statement you will see that I have already agreed with you on this point. "Is homework immoral in some cases? Yes. Homework is immoral when it is assigned just to give a student homework and not to reinforce material that was presented earlier in the day. In this case homework interferes with a child's outside of school development as well as time spent socializing and interacting with peers and family members." Pointless and silly homework is useless and does interrupt the developmental process of young children. From the way we have structured our arguments, however, I think we can both agree that our argument lies in middle school and high school and not in the lower graders (3rd grade and below). Summer homework, how I remember the days. I had to do homework over the summer for a few years and it was because I was taking advanced placement classes. I had elected to take the responsibility of completing these assignments because I was interested in taking these advanced placement classes. Never for any "regular" class did I have summer homework. May I ask what class you have summer homework for? Is it because you are taking an AP/Honors class or perhaps because you are at a private school that requires summer work? While I do feel your pain of having to write five 800 word essays over the summer I fail to see how someone of your intelligence has difficulty completing these in under 2-3 hours. You are in the 8th grade, taking college level and high school level courses. Based on this evidence I should easily be able to assume that you write at the level of a high school junior or senior. Each round of the debate we are writing right now easily approaches 500 words. This particular round should almost approach 800 words and it has taken me only 30 minutes in the middle of my Econ 370 class to write. Most people will always learn more on their own than they will in school but, it is the content of the education that matters. School is a structured environment in which a student learns the basic skills and knowledge of life. The skills learned in school and through homework help to make a student an educated and productive member of society. Homework, while it may seem over demanding and pointless is teaching you more than you think. -Nate P.S. sorry for any typos if there are any. I did not have a chance to edit this...