Homework Should Be Banned

Rebuttal:In response to:1. It can put too much stress on the child and family.My opponent argues that it "is possible that too much homework causes too much stress".This is something I will admit. It is only logical. But I miss - and refute - any reasoning why homework should be completely banned on these grounds. By the same argumentation, ANYTHING would have to be banned, as there is a "too much" of anything.Too much water will kill you.[1]Too much oxygen in your lungs can kill you (commonly known as hyperventilation) [2]Should we ban those, too?The research I offered shows that the PROPER amount of homework is beneficial, leading only to one conclusion:Regulate homework instead of banning it.Even my opponent's OWN SOURCE doesn't speak in favour of banning homework:"Teachers need to be much more clear about why they are assigning homework and what the homework is for," Tai said. "If teachers aren't really incorporating homework into their teaching, it's unclear there is any type of benefit at all and it actually may end up hurting students."[3]This, again, clearly calls for a regulation of homework, not an abolition.In response to:"the US can cut out time-wasting subjects, such as health and PE."Firstly, this is a plan by a politician. It is not backed up with any corroborating studies that this will actually help academic performance. So it is nothing more than pure conjecture that this will actually help students improve.Secondly, my opponent did not even provide a source for this claim. While he did put a tag "3", there is no source given under that tag.Thirdly, health and PE are not time-wasting, as a study from 1999 confirms [4]: "These three studies provide encouraging findings about the effects of enhanced physical education on academic performance. Two studies reported academic benefits, and one reported no difference, in spite of 14-26% reduction in instruction time for subjects other than physical education."In response to: "3. When students don't have the teacher they may not have enough help."One essential goal of any education is to make children able to work independently [5]. They must not be raised to rely on a teacher's help all the time. How will they ever learn how to pass an exam, if that will be the first time they may not ask their teacher for help?Homework is necessary to try out strategies learned in class by oneself, so as to see whether they have been understood.Even if the homework was graded, it would make no difference in favour of my opponent's opinion-based argument.Let's say we ban homework. The student leaves class believing they understood a topic, but they have overlooked something. There is no homework to tell the student that he got stuck, but he's still stuck nonetheless. The next day the teacher comes up with a surprise test. The student fails, never understanding why, his grades are bad nonetheless. So, banning homework will not solve the problem you propose.Summarizing:You have one argument that doesn't necessitate the banning of homework. You have basically conceded that the proper amount of homework is beneficial (by saying that too much may do harm you have accepted that there's an amount that does not do harm in contrast).You have one argument without a source given in spite of claiming so.You have one opinion-based argument that doesn't lead anywhere, as it doesn't add to any solution. I have countered it with a reliable source about the goal of education.Your argument is thus completely refuted. [1]: http://www.scientificamerican.com...[2]: http://www.globalrph.com...[3]: http://www.newsplex.com...[4]: http://corepe.pbworks.com...[5]: http://www.ascd.org...