The Case Against Homework Analysis

The Opinion about Homework For many years people have debated over whether or not homework is beneficial to students. Both sides present compelling evidence that supports their opinions on the matter. The side that believes in homework says “Homework is academically beneficial” and backs up their claim with strong evidence. The other side says “Homework is all pain and no gain” with logical evidence backing them up. The truth is: the question about homework is opinionated and until either side side is proven, it will continue to be that way. Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Homework”, says homework harms students and intrudes on family time, making relationships fragile. He supports his claims by quoting literacy expert Henry Davis who says, “Most of what homework is doing is driving away from learning.” Another way he supports his claim for harmful homework is by paraphrasing his interview with one upset mother who insists homework permanently damaged her relationship with her son (Kohn). Author Brittany Wilson proclaims that students are getting more sedentary, and have more anxiety attacks due to increased amount of homework. Several people support a “no homework proposition” and believe that homework is harmful to students and ruins their social life and free time. There is another side to the debate, and these people believe homework is good for students and promotes good character traits.The author, Annie Murphy Paul, of “The Trouble with Homework” claims children need homework because it strengthens their mind: “Expressing ourselves to info repeatedly over time fixes it more permanently in our minds.” She then explains what she believes quality homework is and how it can help students, proving her point by introducing the new Mind, Brain, and Education method which is scientifically proven …show more content…
Britney Wilson, author of “Work Smarter, Not Harder: The Debate over Homework”, agrees with Paul and asks a thought provoking question: “Would we prefer students spend hours playing Call of Duty or reading Call of the Wild?” She then goes to explain that it doesn’t matter each student is different and needs different amount of time, so instead of quantitative homework; students need qualitative homework (Wilson). Another part of the argument is that homework does nothing to help students grades, but some authors have proof from studies that says otherwise. Alfie Kohn, contradiction himself, says some studies show that there is a correlation between homework and test scores, showing that there is a point to homework no matter how hard, tiring, or stressful it can be. This side of the argument believes that homework is academically and socially beneficial, improving students …show more content…
They believe quality homework challenges students to use their brain and focus more on their task. Britney Wilson believes this is the best thing for students because if makes students practice needed skills that will benefit them and their future. Paul agrees saying quality is more important than quantitative is. Quality homework should be challenging and thought-provoking, making students focus on their task and push themselves to really learn that skill. Paul backs up her statement by saying “Exposing ourselves to information repeatedly over time fixes it more permanently in our minds, by strengthening the representation of the information that is embedded in our neural networks.” This proves that quality homework improves that the more times we have homework and how hard that homework is improves the brain and the students