Question: Is Assigning Homework Advantageous?

Homework Should Not Be a Mandatory Requirement

In the ongoing debate about the necessity of homework, it is crucial to consider the lack of substantial evidence supporting its benefits. Critics of mandatory homework argue that the research on homework's effectiveness is outdated and not always relevant to current educational trends. They cite studies that have collected data from over 10,000 students nationwide between 1990 and 2002, as well as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) report from 2007, which covers 59 different countries. These sources suggest that the amount of homework assigned to students has remained relatively constant over the past three decades.

Proponents of homework often claim that it helps students consolidate learning and develop good study habits. However, opponents counter that the research cited by homework supporters is often from the 1950s to the 1990s, making the argument about outdated research null and void. Furthermore, there is no conclusive evidence that homework provides any significant benefits, either academic or non-academic, to students. Homework has potentially negative associations, including its impact on students' economic status and the amount of help teachers provide to students struggling with assignments.

Lower-achieving students may take more time than higher-achieving students to finish homework assignments, which can lead to a disparity in the amount of time spent on homework. This issue highlights the importance of considering each child's unique home environment when discussing homework requirements. Some parents have the time and resources to dedicate to homework monitoring and assistance, while others do not have the opportunity to be as involved. This can result in a shoddy homework response that may unfairly reflect poorly on the child.

Moreover, opponents of mandatory homework argue that it can sometimes encourage cheating and create a gap between intelligent and academically struggling students. Parents often do their kids' homework, which is considered cheating. Students may cheat because they fear the penalty of not completing their assignments from teachers and parents. Grades, rather than education, have become the major focus of many students. Computers can make cheating easier than ever before, and kids have unmonitored (and often unlimited) access to computers in the home.

Finally, mandatory homework can interfere with family time, recreational activities, and other hobbies. Many older students work or want to work but cannot due to the "second shift" of homework after school. Most adults are not forced to complete work at home after their workday. Even if they were, adults have the option of getting a

Rebuttals 1.Grades create stress Great. Recent research that suggests stress has many benefits. Moderate stress can lead to cell growth in the brain’s learning centers In this 2013 study out of University of California, Berkeley, adult rats were immobilized in a small space for three hours or left unchanged. Two days and then two weeks later, the rats were given a fear-conditioning test, which evaluates the rats freezing or avoidance behavior when in a context that last lead to a negative consequence such as a shock. The measure is known as ‘fear extinction memory.’ The immobilized rats showed an increased level of the stress hormone corticosterone (the rat equivalent of cortisol in humans) as well as an increased growth of neural stem cells in their hippocampus, an important learning center of the brain. As compared to the control group, these rats had similar results on the fear extinction memory test given two days after the initial stressor, but showed significant improvement on the test after two weeks. The authors put fourth that these newly proliferated cells, after taking multiple days to integrate to fullest capacity, helped in learning at this improved level. Overall, it suggests that moderate levels of stress enhanced neural function and learning. Source. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 2. Feed back. As I stated in my opening case. 3.Grades provide feedback to the student Students might *feel* that they understand the material or that they are learning. However, that subjective feeling must be tested by some objective, external measurement. A student that *thinks* has learned the material may have a rude awakening when he takes a quiz and scores 20/100. Without this external feedback, the student would never know whether he truly understood. Psychological studies have found that all people have a natural bias to believe that they are above average. For students, this translates to most students believing that they have above average knowledge of the subject matter. Without external feedback to dissipate this bias, students that don't really understand the material would not realize that they need to study more or harder. 7. This is irrelevant to the issue at hand. This is mainly a case against standardized tests however a creative piece of writing may also be graded according to a rubric which may make student work harder to accomplish everything in the rubric and get a high grade. Tests may foster rote memorization but not grades. 8. Again grades provide the student something to work towards perhaps the student doesn’t want to learn but the fear of failing encourages him and makes him finish the 5 problems which in turn may make him interested in the subject. 9. Students working for a grade view knowledge as something that must be internalized in order to achieve a high mark, instead of something that can be intriguing when discussed and grappled with. Again this has to do with issues in TESTS and not grades. Tests perhaps should be given in different formats to encourage more critical thinking or have a class discussion which is also graded. For example I have had class discussions that have been graded. 4. However they are still learning and without grades they would not WANT to learn at all without that extrinsic motivator they may not do any work or learn anything at all but with grades they are still learning even if indirectly Furthermore education is ultimately utilitarian. 1.Grades give immediate gratification for hard work & and something tangible to work towards… Grades provide gratification for hard work. As pro pointed out ” People do better in life if they can work towards a more concrete, important goal further down the road” For many people GRADES provide that goal to work towards. 2.2.Efficiency Not only are grades beneficial for students but also teachers greatly benefit from qualitatively quantifying the performance of students. For example letter grading systems provides teachers with concrete and effeicent ways of evaluating mastery of course content by students. Furthermore if a high school student applies to college, one major factor that the admissions office consider are grades. When college students apply to graduate school, the admissions office again considers grades. When students apply for a job, the employer considers the students grades. Without grades, post-secondary schools and employers will have no way to know whether the student learned the material well or badly. Employers would obviously prefer to hire computer programmers and lawyers who achieved top grades rather than those that received the worst grades because top grades are a proxy for learning. The students with the best grades learned the material better than the other students and are therefore likely to make better workers. UC Santa Cruz, for example, used to have a holistic rating system, where each student merely received an "essay" as feedback from each professor. The campus switched to grades so that graduate schools would have some legitimate way to measure students' performance (against each other and against other students from other schools). As pro pointed out. Grades allow educators to make clear and informed decisions. This benefits EDUCATION. “educators are helped to make decisions” 4. 4. The educational system would crumble without grades. My opponent would have to offer a rival educational system without grades. It is incoherent to talk about whether a student has learned a certain subject matter, without somehow grading their knowledge. Without some tangible form of knowledge, any attempt of a student or teacher to figure out how much a student had learned would be nothing more than a subjective guess based on cognitive bias (such as a teacher saying that students who he or she liked "knew" the material better). Without grades, students that did not talk much during class would likely be marginalized because the teacher would assume they had not learned anything. Thus, I negate the resolution and argue that grades are on the whole necessary and beneficial and the educational system is better with them. Since an essay will be graded according to a rubric if a student met those goals within the rubric the teacher has no choice but to assign the grade deserved.

You forfieted. Does that mean you can't argue with me anymore? ('-') Anyway, as I said before, homework should be optional, because it causes stress and not all students need it.

Great arguments, however, the trend is to be more not traditional as ever, and we no longer live in an agrarian society so kids don't need to be home all summer wasting their brains away... so go to school and prosper. Family Education says" students in year-round schools that have everyone on the same track have shown improved achievement scores over those in traditional schools. Read more on FamilyEducation: http://school.familyeducation.com... Go School!

My thanks to Muted for his response – it is a challenging, direct rebuttal. On BoP issues, Con need not have to present a case, but if he does not then any proven benefit is enough for me. As is, a weighing is required. Just quickly, Con couldn’t rebut all arguments of mine last round (as per rules) , yet (as per memory retention and short term memory!) I’ll remind readers that my points ‘Reduction in general mischief’ and ‘Working Mindset / Lack of Agrarian Workforce’ and most of ‘Homework vs. Instruction’ have not been contended as yet. Let’s go to the arguments – Con’s then a focus on mine. School and Work Life Con laments about how students aren’t being prepared for school. I agree completely and would be ready to debate a host of policies. The point though is whether my proposal increases the time spent on school related work – currently called homework and time in school. If homework currently is > the increase in schooltime (and reduction in ‘homework’) then my system gives more time for student use. The converse applies. Let’s assume the net ‘homework’ component remains the same. Does the amount of student free time, time not required to be at school, increase? Yes. Under the current model lunch, recess and all other breaks occur at set times – they are immovable to the student; it is bad luck if you’d like to sacrifice a break at school for an equivalent amount of time outside school – you can’t. Under my model, as readers may recall, you can. Recall in R1 how we had 80 minutes of break built into the day; 40 was automatically set aside for lunch. That left 40 minutes which students could elect to have at the start or the end of the day. If they chose the day’s end then they could leave school at the start of that break. So, in terms of time which students can utilise freely (free time for things like work), my model provides 20 minutes extra for extracurricular activities, work etc. notwithstanding any changes in the amount of homework. If Con argues for a change in homework amount (the extra time ought to cancel out the reduction) then he gets to drink the associated poison. That is... aside from all the other benefits of the scheme, particularly memory retention, which we’ll touch on later. For instance, in R2 I discussed how teacher instruction can help students do homework more productively if they’re stuck. Time saved is time that can be used for the very activities Con values. Con needs to demonstrate how my model decreases available free time. Homework reduction is equivalent to school being lengthened; under my model extra free time is available. Lamenting school’s uselessness is irrelevant unless it can be linked to time for other activities. Con’s calculation makes no sense as well. In Australia a 9-3 approx. (I have 8:50-3:10) day is the norm, although a longer school year is the compensation [1] [2]. Con, why the – (40*2 – 20) ? Con needs to elaborate on this example. Memory retention, homework, spacing effect Con lamented the failure of school. Con’s first source started with “The Department for Work and Pensions minister said he was "genuinely shocked" by "the very small number of young people coming out of school with good GCSE passes in core subjects”(about 1 in 6 said later) . What would help with this? Better memory retention. In R2 I outlined how spaced presentation was superior to massed presentation for memory retention purposes, and how school promoted spaced presentation by virtue of the lessons being spaced out on the timetable. Indeed, school forces spaced presentation vs. the massed presentation of the home. Con does state that the spacing effect can occur at home. Agreed. However, this will necessarily happen less than under the model, ergo worse memory retention. Also, I specifically noted that a student will tend to do homework in clumps (say, a bunch of maths exercises) because massed presentation is at work! But it doesn’t end there for memory retention. I recently read Memory by Jonathan K. Foster (first published 2009), one of OUP’s fascination very short introductions. To quote one part: “Other things being equal, we tend to remember information better if we are in a similar physical context and emotional state at the time we wish to retrieve information as we were in at the time we were exposed to that information.” School is more akin to work than the home environment, so as per a more similar physical context we remember better. This is specified in the encoding specificity principle. Also, the emotional state at school is more constant than at home, more like work. This again promotes better memory retention as the retrieval cue matches memories better. This sort of logic strongly explains why we can’t remember dreams – the physical context is different, our emotional state different and our physiological state are also different. On Con’s other points: Technology is getting better, but it’s no substitute for a qualified teacher at school at the ready – that’s what my model gives. Also, technology is a wash – every year 9 student in the public sector is already given a laptop. [3] At least in NSW they do! On comfort, I concede homes are generally more comfortable, although friends can mitigate this discomfort. To recap, homework done at school is done in a manner of spaced presentation. This is superior for memory retention. Furthermore, recall is strengthened by a similar emotional state and physical context, which happens when learning is conducted more strongly in a given place, such as school. These effects far outweigh some minor comfort benefits. Memory is strengthened tremendously by shifting homework to school time. Cost / Teacher Workload Con is right, the US has poor teacher pay: See that? The US is far to the right...I strongly suggest higher pay for teachers, and more respect as in Finland. [4] Would that we could change that. However, Con makes the mistake of assuming a higher workload for teachers, and the associated problems. Evidence? No, assertion. Remember, the increased time at school is in substitute for marking things like homework at home, there doesn’t have to be additional lectures. If Con wishes to contend that homework shouldn’t be marked he can. I'm all for Con's concerns... if they apply to the proposed model, which isn't proven. In fact, reducing homework separates work and home life, which is beneficial. Also, with better memory retention the teacher has to waste less time re-explaining content. Time saved that can be utilised as the teacher wishes. Finally, my cost points weren’t refuted – debase private tuition costs, reduce day care costs, and, crucially, streamline use of public transport and the like (more efficient, less cost of public transport... maybe those savings could go to teachers pay in a dream...) . And my last point, to quote from R2: “Parents can work for longer. There’s less concern for parents to be at home, supervising their children, if they can trust that their child is safe and productive at school, vs. potentially the converse at home.” That point ties into the social mischief point, which hasn’t been contended as yet. Families save money if students aren’t damaging things, doing drugs , as well as earning more through working longer hours of course. Conclusion Con must refute the points of this round + those of mine unscathed of mine by his R2 (in part as per the rules). Con has work to do, specifically, he must prove how his points apply to my model and not just a general attack on schools, and how they outweigh my benefits. I look forward to Con’s reply. Sources 1 - http://www.infoplease.com... 2 - http://nces.ed.gov... 3 - http://ozteacher.com.au... 4 - http://www.smh.com.au...

I agree mostly with what my opponent says in his first paragragh OUTSIDE of a school environment. You need to encode the information into long term memory because they won't let you make a google search on your exams. My opponent argues that you can store information in the digital realm so you can access it after your time in school is over. If your incredibly concerned with being able to have access to your 10th grade history class twenty years down the line then this argument is completely valid. However, most people are more concerned with getting high marks on their exams which requires mnemonic encoding. 1. if you lose focus on the lecture and you find yourself without an answer, chances are your class has assigned homework. if you find yourself without an answer on the homework you can look up the answer and incorporate it into the notes thus facilitating encoding. 2. yes, you can print the paper but if you learned it on the computer attempting to encode it on paper will still be more difficult. And I'm not saying that computerized learning has no meritorious traits. Simply that there needs to be a balance to ensure the most efficient learning. 3. It's not the right of the university to track the movements of its students. it's invasive. At work you can sign a contract. I wouldn't want my workplace to track my location either. This point is one of the smaller ones in both of our cases. 4. I believe these websites are great tools to facilitate learning as a supplement to what was taught in a lecture. to enforce this method of learning upon all students when many learn best from face to face instruction would defeat the purpose of these learning supplements. 5 again. these apps could be used as a supplement to learning and could be used to drill information that has already been encoded to increase the ease of access by drilling synaptic pathways. 6.7. Again, since you won't have access to google on the exam you will need the information encoded into long term memory as a result face to face communication is the best known methodology for facilitating encoding. What's actually driving up tuition are the redundant administrative positions that are growing in number. not hiring professors. but that's a debate for another day. 8. I don't think we were on the same page for the first part of this. For getting help from the teacher I was referring more to High school. Tutors were more for college. Having an online community to help you would be beneficial as long as it was used as a supplement to what was taught in the lecture. Information must first be encoded into long term memory in the lecture, then it may be supplemented with whatever means work best for you.

I have came across the homeschooling argument and now i want to start a debate. I am a con, so any pro is welcome.

I admit it, you do make a great point, BUT admit it, the more hours, the less time there is to be with family, or with friends and moving around. do you REALLY think that the WOULDN'T add more homework? Also, it mean less time to be on this wonderful website. With that said, I do belive that it is time to see what lame statment you give in return.

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...

Can you please tell me your definition of lazy and what you mean by technology. It would help me figure out what exactly you mean by those words. Once again I never said "Are you saying that no one has made a book, article, etc that has the same information as Wikipedia, or Answer.com ?". We also need to stay on the topic of electronics in school. That is our main focus. Not electronics in society. I have been able to use electronics to get my home work done faster and still get get grades. On top of that I am able to work out and be very active because I can finish my work faster. Electronics make me more efficient.

Students learn enough in the classroom. They do not need to go home and do more work when it is not needed.


Question: Is Assigning Homework Advantageous?

Homework
I had to rewrite this as my computer decided to log me out unexpectedly. It's true that studies have produced varied results, but the inconsistency in findings highlights the uncertain benefits of homework in achieving academic success. The divergent conclusions indicate that homework can often be ineffective and unnecessary. Even if it occasionally works, the times it doesn't can waste precious time for both students and teachers. Homework can induce undue stress, particularly for students who struggle due to misunderstandings. These students face the unfair situation of trying to complete homework they don't comprehend, resulting in poor grades that ultimately affect their overall performance. Teachers should avoid assigning homework until they are confident that all students have grasped the subject matter, thereby ensuring they are setting their students up for success rather than failure. Children from less responsible home environments are at a disadvantage, not by their own doing. They should not be penalized for their parents' shortcomings, which could perpetuate cycles of poverty. Their grades suffer due to factors beyond their control, such as parental involvement and lack of resources, which is unjust. Educators enter the profession aware of the demands and compensation, and if they are dissatisfied, they have the option to pursue other careers. They knew the time and effort required, so they should not complain about the workload. For further insights, visit [stophomework.com](http://stophomework.com). Regarding the comparison to South Korea, consider the cultural differences in educational expectations. In the U.S., there's less pressure on grades, while in Asia, there's an intense focus on achieving top grades and fostering a competitive environment, which is not as prevalent in America.

Pro said: I think that homeschooling is a great idea too, but even if there is more than 5 people homeschooling with yoou, you can't LEARN how to make new friends. cause the only friends you got is the ones in the room that you learn in. Rebuttal: We all learn how to make friends by going out there and talking to people. School is not the only place to do this. Home schooled children can and do socialize. . http://www.lewrockwell.com... Pro said: I thank you Xera for making this th hardest debate I've had, lol, your welcome. I'll post the remainder of my response to this in the comments section. Ladies and Gentlemen: I propose that the resolution : Children should be in school is false. I have shown that children can gain as much from homeschooling as they do from school, and that they will outperform their public school counterparts when they are homeschooled. Therefore Children should be at home.

Firstly i want to say that in the USA only pupils in first several classes have a rest at home. Pupils in middle and high school do their homework at home. Your statistics can be true, but i saw TV-show about life in the USA, so in this program child did their home work in living-room, interesting fact that those children had their own rooms. So this statistic can not be indicator of parent's care in the USA. People from the USA are not aliens. In USA, parents support their children and you can not say that they have cold relationships. Our debates not about relationships, It is about differences between Kazakhstan's and the USA's education. I claim that the USA's model of education is the best.

First thing that I saw that you gave references at the end of the post, I thought that the argument is going to be tough. But then I saw how the research that you posted mostly regard a marginal point which is not that valid to this discussion. However, I studied A-Level psychology so I can address that point. Google search, like any other information data storage, if it is computerized or not. Is beneficial. People use google for all kind of of uses, if it is for choosing what movie to see, how to reach a place or what to buy. Why would you want to store that information in the long term memory. Even if you are a programmer or do software/hardware related work, you need google to refer to documentations and manuals. Everything is stored in the short term memory, for long enough to have the task done. The only main thing that needs to be stored in your long term memory is language. And you practice it a lot regardless if you use a computer or not. Regardless of the debate, schools arent mostly about storing as much information as possible in the long term. You can test yourself. Take a pen and paper and write everything that you remember from secondary school. You would hardly reach 1% of the material in the syllabus that was taught. With computerized technology all your notes wont be lost, they will be in some server on some cloud, so you would be able to refer to them. You might also be able to drill the material after you finish school with the apps that you had on your ipad. 1. What?!?! you can reply the lecture again. Universities such as Stanford and MIT already exploit that way of learning. In the traditional way if you lost focus during the lecture, you are screwed, because you cant replay the session. 2.ha! I do remember learning about context dependent learning in psychology. The point is so weak. You can print the paper from its digital version if you wish, and it would give you the memory effect that you are after. Again that technology is already applied in universities, and it was applied at the university that I was at. 3. What do you mean it is not their right??!? all a student has to do, is reach the school, or classroom, and open the app and press on a button. The app would trace his location. The teacher can then open his app and confirm the attendance. I used apps like that when I was at work. It is just a better technology to track the student attending lessons and then create graphs, histograms and make other statistical representations which could be then presented to the school senior staff in a form of a power point presentation. 4. Virtual learning is being deployed on many sites today. Linda.com, Khan academy and Coursers. Entrepreneurs, learners and even professors believe in it, because they all participate in those programs. Apart from replaying all or any lessons again, you could prevent courses that were badly instructed by some teachers and receive community support from people all over the world. The only problem is that for you to be examined you need to be physically present. 5. Apps accelerate learning. There are many apps there that have got different drills and progress tracking features. If you learn networking, then there are many networking apps such as CCNA and Network+ apps with tests and quizzes. They dont do any harm, but assist you in learning. You could avoid using them anyway if you wish. 6. 7. It may only lower learning on specific classes such as classes that require lab work or special equipment. There is no need for you to spend money on a class that you could watch online. A school is like a business, it has to create a model that works. It needs to hire lecturers for a specific period of time and rent a place for them. All that increases your costs significantly. A degree from a top university costs around quarter of million dollars today. And it doesnt include the cost of accommodation and other fees. A degree can be much cheaper and consist a few thousands of students each semester, and not a few tens each semester. 8. Lol, since when do you get extra help at school? Do you mean an extra hour or two with the teacher? dont you think it would cost you more money? why not to have an online community that helps you for free and without attending some extra class in some place. I remember having paid for extra classes during the holiday in my school.. That was so expensive! I wish I just could go online, and search for definitions and learn maths from the internet. I can go and learn calculus right now, and learn it well.. with all the material that is there. The only issue that people have with that kind of learning is that they are afraid they wont have the discipline to do so.

My thanks to Muted for his acceptance. I hope for an intelligent, interesting debate. By virtue of his brief R1, I presume he understands the resolution in full.Massed vs. Spaced PresentationOne of education’s main goals is for students to retain what they learn at school – we ought to prefer systems which result in greater retention of knowledge as it’s a goal for education. A good test score due to cramming, with the student later forgetting such knowledge is sub-optimal vs. a lower test score yet greater memory retention.How does this relate to the resolution? Being in school encourages spaced presentation, which results in better memory retention.This is all about the ‘spacing effect’ [1]. This effect details how humans more easily learn / remember things when studied a few times over a longer period of time (spaced presentation) as opposed to repeated study in a shorter timespan (massed presentation). However, and this is key - "the benefit of spaced presentations does not appear at short retention intervals; that is, at short retention intervals, massed presentation lead to better memory performance than spaced presentations" . SeeGreene, R.L. (1989). Spacing effects in memory: Evidence for a two-process account. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(3), 371-377.School via timetabling tends to promote spaced presentation – lessons are not put back to back to back for the same subject. However, many students might do a mass of homework for a subject in one go because a) Their schedule promotes that, b) They remember as they go (ie. Ex 1. Is a prerequisite for Ex 2. And so remembering Ex 1 helps with Ex 2) along with other reasons. Essentially, students will tend to group together clumps of related homework and do them in go, which is more a form of massed presentation than spaced presentation. Ergo, school, by encouraging spaced presentation under the proposed model through putting ‘homework’ in class time in effect, is preferable. But it doesn’t end there for memory retention. I recently read Memory by Jonathan K. Foster (first published 2009), one of OUP’s fascination very short introductions. To quote one part: “Other things being equal, we tend to remember information better if we are in a similar physical context and emotional state at the time we wish to retrieve information as we were in at the time we were exposed to that information.” School is more akin to work than the home environment, so as per a more similar physical context we remember better. This is specified in the encoding specificity principle. Also, the emotional state at school is more constant than at home, more like work. This again promotes better memory retention as the retrieval cue matches memories better. This sort of logic strongly explains why we can’t remember dreams – the physical context is different, our emotional state different and our physiological state are also different. Homework vs. InstructionOn homework briefly:Much homework is sub-optimal, which can't be helped. Some homework is good but a student doesn't realise it. Some homework is simply beneficial. The issue in evaluating the value of homework is what students do outside of school - for some capable people homework is restrictive; many are just wasting their youth on trivialities; homework is good, no matter it's sub-optimal state, for these people.Textbooks are instructional to a point. However, a teacher’s guidance + a textbook is superior. If a student doesn’t understand their textbook’s example (say, maths) when doing an exercise (the type of homework being restricted) then they will perform sub-optimally (ie. Very short answers to written questions), waste an inordinate amount of time doing the exercise (vs. doing the exercise then something else productive) or they’ll copy the answers. Some of those are diametrically opposite, but that reflects the student’s beliefs being different. A student at school will seek guidance from a teacher when stuck, eliminating time wastage (‘inordinate’). They will have greater difficulty copying answers due to teacher supervision. They will be pushed to perform optimally not just by the teacher, but by peers – iron sharpens iron is just as true in education.CostStreamlining students and workers to the same timetable reduces things like day care costs somewhat, debases tuition costs (private tutoring that is) and ensures maximal use of public transport on a wider basis (many buses and trains around school time are less cramped than during peak hours) . More importantly though, parents can work for longer. There’s less concern for parents to be at home, supervising their children, if they can trust that their child is safe and productive at school, vs. potentially the converse at home.Reduction in general mischiefIt’s a fact – youth disproportionately commit crimes. “A comparison of the proportion of total offenders who were aged 10–24 in 2009–10 (48%) with the proportion of the general population who were aged 10–24 in Australia as at December 2009 (23%), clearly shows the higher proportion of young people in the offender population (graph S13.1).” [2] What do youth have that adults have? A disproportionate amount of unallocated free time, which combined with various rebellious impulses and hormones results in crimes being committed. See the graph in the link for a visual explanation of the aforementioned.A solid school environment and a reduction in this poorly utilised free time (crime is a poor use of time with regards to the collective) will reduce crime. Furthermore, additional schooling increases the ability to get messages out to avoid drugs and the like. Government messages have been effective at reducing drug use, such as smoking [3] [4]. Education is cited as one of the main reasons for this decline in smoking. If we can combat smoking then a more effective message through a safe, controlled environment like school will also reduce illicit drug use, and legal, yet harmful drug use. Longer school hours can help achieve this through better education.Working mindset / Lack of agrarian workforce currentlyWhy did the US and many other countries originally adopt a 9-3 style of schooling? Why did the, now rather ludicrous, idea of summer vacation eventuate in the US? The reason that this occurred was that the US was formerly an agrarian society – children of agrarian society left school to go work in the field at home. Now we have no such demand on our time other than school. Let me quote YYW from the second link last round:“Children must be taught the importance of self discipline, the necessity of a strong work ethic and the importance of maximized productivity from birth. I'm not saying that kids should be pushed into the fields or factories, but rather suggesting that all the time wasted in the summer months is the opportunity cost of greater preparation for college, for grad school, for work and for life.”Now, this debate isn’t about summer vacation, but why not have children work as their parents do? It instills the values of work, the value of free time, presents social mischief (see earlier) and gives children and teenagers a greater appreciation of their parents duties and workload, which increases familial harmony. This mindset in beneficial for future productivity – another goal of education. ConclusionEncouraging spaced presentation, increasing available instructional assistance, reducing cost, a reduction in crime and social mischief, the development of a working mindset and familial harmony are all good reasons to extend the school day.I eagerly await my opponent’s response.Sources1- http://en.wikipedia.org...2- http://www.abs.gov.au...3- http://www.cancercouncil.com.au...4- http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au...

Social skills- You can still learn social skills by talking with neighbors, hanging out at a mall or park etc. Summer isn't a hiding time, now is it? Bullying- Well it could have went the other way around for you, you may have became a bully or allowed yourself to be run over. And this is used as an excuse by our teachers for not taking adequate action against bullying. 'deal with it yourself' sometimes doesn't work out. Talking- So, if teachers stop us from talking in class, then the time talking with friends is reduced. I would have met my people somewhere else rather than school. Homework organization- You may be lucky then. Our subject teachers give time for homework according to the time needed only for 'its completion', and so if we get more assignments that day from other classes its humanly impossible not to skip one of them. I can't give myself 45 minutes, I have to make do with 10, for I return at home 4-30 pm and sleep at 9, so I have approximately 4 hours, out of which I need to do other things like eat, change, debate on this site(lol), play football etc. which reduces my study time. 'also, the curriculum for school are made to be easy to understand, easy to comprehend and made so its at your grades average level, none of the work is forced into you, every subject can be fun if you apply yourself.' No, every child has a different level of intelligence, and also a different level of interest. I think that interest is like pouring 1 liter of water into 10 glasses. Sure, some may have 1.5 capacity and more want to learn, but I think that for each subject you are a bit more interested in, give a bit more effort you reduce the effort you will put in another subject. All of the work is forced upon us, we really can't choose subjects yet, and its impossible to be wizard at all subjects unless in primary. How can you be sure the curriculum is made keeping in mind the average ability when no student's opinion is taken upon it?? ' if you don't like a certain subject you can just not take it on your chosen subjects in year nine and after. as for the "homework plague", again spreading your workload helps a lot in giving you time to enjoy. I told you, most subject teachers don't co-ordinate with each other when giving homework, and thus we get overburdened. As for choosing subjects in year nine, I saw that our form was rigged( it required us to choose at least 13 subjects) and we are already studying only 17 subjects. I certainly dislike more than 4 subjects, what shall I do?

There was this boy in our neighbourhood called Bob. What made Bob so unique is that I never saw him on the bus on the way to school. This made me wonder how he got to school. I asked him if he teleported to school using his mind. He replied "no". "Don't you go to school?" I asked him, shortly after he replied "I go to school at home." I thought that having all your education at home is a bit weird and backwards, but I probably shouldn't have been so surprised. Bob was a backwards kind of guy. He even spelt his name backwards.I then tried to think all backwards the way he does, and soon I came up with a brilliant idea; doing everything a normal person does at home at school. Brushing your teeth, getting dressed, going to sleep, eating breakfast and dinner, that sort of thing. I then thought that I should be as imaginative as the advocates of homsechooling, so I named my idea "Schoolhoming". So that's what I want to debate today, whether my idea of schoolhoming is revolutionary, as I currently believe. I thank you.

Rebuttals 1.Grades create stress Great. Recent research that suggests stress has many benefits. Moderate stress can lead to cell growth in the brain’s learning centers In this 2013 study out of University of California, Berkeley, adult rats were immobilized in a small space for three hours or left unchanged. Two days and then two weeks later, the rats were given a fear-conditioning test, which evaluates the rats freezing or avoidance behavior when in a context that last lead to a negative consequence such as a shock. The measure is known as ‘fear extinction memory.’ The immobilized rats showed an increased level of the stress hormone corticosterone (the rat equivalent of cortisol in humans) as well as an increased growth of neural stem cells in their hippocampus, an important learning center of the brain. As compared to the control group, these rats had similar results on the fear extinction memory test given two days after the initial stressor, but showed significant improvement on the test after two weeks. The authors put fourth that these newly proliferated cells, after taking multiple days to integrate to fullest capacity, helped in learning at this improved level. Overall, it suggests that moderate levels of stress enhanced neural function and learning. Source. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 2. Feed back. As I stated in my opening case. 3.Grades provide feedback to the student Students might *feel* that they understand the material or that they are learning. However, that subjective feeling must be tested by some objective, external measurement. A student that *thinks* has learned the material may have a rude awakening when he takes a quiz and scores 20/100. Without this external feedback, the student would never know whether he truly understood. Psychological studies have found that all people have a natural bias to believe that they are above average. For students, this translates to most students believing that they have above average knowledge of the subject matter. Without external feedback to dissipate this bias, students that don't really understand the material would not realize that they need to study more or harder. 7. This is irrelevant to the issue at hand. This is mainly a case against standardized tests however a creative piece of writing may also be graded according to a rubric which may make student work harder to accomplish everything in the rubric and get a high grade. Tests may foster rote memorization but not grades. 8. Again grades provide the student something to work towards perhaps the student doesn’t want to learn but the fear of failing encourages him and makes him finish the 5 problems which in turn may make him interested in the subject. 9. Students working for a grade view knowledge as something that must be internalized in order to achieve a high mark, instead of something that can be intriguing when discussed and grappled with. Again this has to do with issues in TESTS and not grades. Tests perhaps should be given in different formats to encourage more critical thinking or have a class discussion which is also graded. For example I have had class discussions that have been graded. 4. However they are still learning and without grades they would not WANT to learn at all without that extrinsic motivator they may not do any work or learn anything at all but with grades they are still learning even if indirectly Furthermore education is ultimately utilitarian. 1.Grades give immediate gratification for hard work & and something tangible to work towards… Grades provide gratification for hard work. As pro pointed out ” People do better in life if they can work towards a more concrete, important goal further down the road” For many people GRADES provide that goal to work towards. 2.2.Efficiency Not only are grades beneficial for students but also teachers greatly benefit from qualitatively quantifying the performance of students. For example letter grading systems provides teachers with concrete and effeicent ways of evaluating mastery of course content by students. Furthermore if a high school student applies to college, one major factor that the admissions office consider are grades. When college students apply to graduate school, the admissions office again considers grades. When students apply for a job, the employer considers the students grades. Without grades, post-secondary schools and employers will have no way to know whether the student learned the material well or badly. Employers would obviously prefer to hire computer programmers and lawyers who achieved top grades rather than those that received the worst grades because top grades are a proxy for learning. The students with the best grades learned the material better than the other students and are therefore likely to make better workers. UC Santa Cruz, for example, used to have a holistic rating system, where each student merely received an "essay" as feedback from each professor. The campus switched to grades so that graduate schools would have some legitimate way to measure students' performance (against each other and against other students from other schools). As pro pointed out. Grades allow educators to make clear and informed decisions. This benefits EDUCATION. “educators are helped to make decisions” 4. 4. The educational system would crumble without grades. My opponent would have to offer a rival educational system without grades. It is incoherent to talk about whether a student has learned a certain subject matter, without somehow grading their knowledge. Without some tangible form of knowledge, any attempt of a student or teacher to figure out how much a student had learned would be nothing more than a subjective guess based on cognitive bias (such as a teacher saying that students who he or she liked "knew" the material better). Without grades, students that did not talk much during class would likely be marginalized because the teacher would assume they had not learned anything. Thus, I negate the resolution and argue that grades are on the whole necessary and beneficial and the educational system is better with them. Since an essay will be graded according to a rubric if a student met those goals within the rubric the teacher has no choice but to assign the grade deserved.

I would like to clarify my statement in which the Pro stated that i have become the pro. In this statement(which you can find in my round 2 argument) i said that technology will be useful in the future but that is not what this argument is about. This argument is about technology in schools.I believe that students won't need to learn how to use technology at school because they have or will learn at home because many students already own electronic devices. The Pro also asked the following " If you find technology pointless in the classroom setting, then why are you using it right now?" which is completely irrelevant because i'm not in a classroom setting while doing this. Also this debate is not some type of school project. THe answer to her follow up question would be yes i have used technology for school but it typically wasnt at school, which meant it was not disrupting my learning time. I would like to take this time to point out that in the studies that The Pro used many of the results could not truly be examined. for example in the first study she used she stated that Students "believed" that technology helps and i don't think i need to say this but things don't become true just because you believe in them.(millions of kids around the world believe in santa claus but..well you get the point). In another one of her surveys she stated that 16 out of 18 kids remembered animal facts "better"(remember this word) by using powerpoints But she never says what it was better than. for all we know the original teaching method could've been a teacher saying facts once then handing out a test.(we don't know).Also i would like to say that anytime you do something by yourself you are bound to remember it better, whether it was writing facts on a powerpoint or a piece of paper.(most of you know this from experience). Last i would like to conclude my round 3 argument by countering or rather going farther into detail about one more argument made by the Pro. This was the argument that students feel more relaxed while being able to do task using technology. This is a situation that i can put myself into i because if i had an opportunity to play games and goof off while i was suppose to be doing an assignment i would take (and i don' know about anyone else but i am quite relaxed while playing games). So from a teacher's view point or anyone else who has been observing these students behavior with technology it would appear that they are very relaxed and more lively too. Before the Pro attempts to use this as a counter i would like to say it right now so i won't have to in my next argument. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to block every game/fun activity on the internet.

Pro begins with telling us what he/she believes... Good for you buddy would you like a bouquet of flowers with that cookie?Now, Pro continues to tell us how home-schooling is useful for people in rural areas... He then says that it would waste taxpayer's money to establish a school there. Pro is not only assuming we are in a nation where schooling is not privatized but is also saying that an expensive tutor (or sets of tutors, on per subject) is somehow better to force all families to pay for than a lesser school fee. On top of that Pro is suggesting that because time at school is limited, time at home will necessarily be more.This is where he is wrong, different homes can be extremely contrasting. Sure, some homes are far better learning areas than schools but for some students that public school is the only time they get away form their fighting, benefits scrounging family that is involved in drugs and stuff and pressures their child into the drug business 24/7 if they can. There are so many bad neighbourhoods where school is the only time the child ever even realizes they actually can get out of it alive (even if this was by the rap battles they happened to have in the schoolyard (50 Cent living example of it [http://en.wikipedia.org...]). The fact is that school is so much more for children from deprived homes, it's a place they make other friends and get a real sense of happiness and belonging. In fact, pedophilia and many other horrible things that could go on in a family become so much easier to mask and keep unreported and unknown if there was an 'everyone teaches their own children' culture. You'd be limiting geniuses of mediocre parents because they want their child to master their trade rather than question conventions or strive for their own career path in life. It's so debilitating to allow parent and families to limit the capacity for their children.Another issue is cultures that don't accept the notion of mental illness. There are actual parents who, if they give birth to a retard or disordered child of any kind refuse to send her/him to therapy out of pure pride and ignorance. They can't believe they'd give birth to such a disabled entity I mean sure other families do but not them. This is far more common than you think and is actually diluted by the fact that school counsellors and the like (who are the main people that the child of pedophiles would feel safe reporting to) help disabled children realize they're disabled to being with and teach them coping mechanisms beyond their family's capability to deal with the issue.Furthermore, Pro states that he can blast his music and get away with it... Not necessarily. In fact some families are religiously against any music at all and we could have a suppressed Mozart-capacity individual never blossoming into the brilliant artist they were because they never had the variety that school forces one to experience so that children experience things they never did before and make sure they actually don't like it before refusing to pursue such a career path.Pro uses anecdotal evidence of how he/she was home-schooled but this is only acceptable to Pro as they didn't have the exposure to school.home-schooling does not save on commuting time. People will shop far more often as they have to buy far more food and drinks to survive a week for their child is being fed there and additionally will have to clean it more often as the individual is in the house more often. This will result in having to buy cleaning products more frequently as well as lightbulb replacements. Everything that was being saved by the facilities at school providing it for the child is now solely up to the individual family to sort out. What if they ran out of something like lightbulb and refuse dot let their child work in the dark and it was middle of winter? Some parents are really sociopathic and just don't care for their child, some are psychopathic and go out of their way to make their child suffer.In regards to the headphones point not all families would allow that and this is why school is fairer to all students regardless of their home life.Knowing what' sin the food is more likely in a school that would be sued the sh*t out of if they dared to lie on their menu and were caught by someone having an allergic reaction or something. Instead, at home all kinds of things can be put in your food by your parent without any supervision or official health checks to fear.The bully point is stupid. Family members can bully you far easier if they control you 24/7, and systematically do so too. On top of this your system has zero capacity for orphans and kids in foster homes.Not getting out much is a point you yourself invented but as you can see it gives the parents too much power to abuse their child and lock them up etc. whereas a system that made school compulsory and home-schooling banned would force parents to give that child some access and a way to escape their hell. You have no idea how it is to be abused clearly so don't say 'it can't be that bad' because if you dare to say that I will bring up 30 examples of the most horrific kind of abuses you could think of all because non-home-schooling wasn't a mandatory thing for all parents to offer their children. What the heck is the boyfriend and girlfriend point about? Surely this is an argument against your case... You say that the social isolation of home-school can be compensated for but why would you need to compensate if you sent the damn kid to school in the first place and let them experience social life and the interaction that the working world requires wannabe loners to actually do to get anywhere. Even the weirdest geeks had to interact at some point to get to where they are.In actual fact this is a point I want to raise; almost all geniuses began in school and their hatred of it became the fire that drove them to outshine all their peers and eventually become the brilliant minds they once were. While they hated it,f they'd never had that fire in their belly their motivation and competitive streak to outdo their 'inferior' peers would never have surfaced in the first place as very few parents encourage their child to become a narcissist despite it being the best personality for any genius to have if they want to succeed.The best villains were bully victims in school who learned the hard way how to manipulate and charm people. It's never some home-schooled freak who has no reason to hate humanity as a whole and they are defective villains since they don't know how to deal with people the right way.

Thats why there are lots of different resources available online. When one source isn't reliable you can go to another of the over 1,000,000 available sources online. Also what about online schools where you can sit at home while still going to a 7 hour school day. Kids get up at 6:00 every week day and go to school, but with online education you get too sleep in for a while and you can take your time until your online lesson starts. Even if you go to school while using a laptop kids enjoy it more then a text book. Textbooks are VERY heavy and can hurt your back, but if you have a laptop you have more information for less weight. Also what about the horrible hand writing that some kids have. You wont need to write anymore when you have a laptop, Plus its faster to type then write. You wont have the risk of loosing any important papers because you can just save them in a file. :D


Question: Is Assigning Homework Advantageous?

Should homework be assigned to students?
I respectfully disagree with your stance, Zeke. Responsibility can be cultivated through tasks such as doing chores, maintaining a tidy room, and keeping track of personal belongings. Homework can often consume a significant amount of time that could otherwise be spent with family.

I think homework in schools should be optional because homework is a leading cause of stress in teens and tweens, and this generation is more stressed over school than the last. Also, I know homework is made for extra help, but what if students don't need that extra help? Should they risk failing school for not needing extra help? They come to school to learn, and most would enjoy that, but the homework is too much. it should at least be optional.

First off I'd like to say, thank you for debating with me. I have enjoyed our discussion. Here is part of a paper I wrote on the mental health of students. This paragraph pertains to how stress impacts mental health: The byproducts of these hormones are said to have the ability to act as sedatives. When large amounts of stress hormones are released it can contribute to low energy or depression. It"s normal to experience highs and lows from day to day, but an extensive release of byproducts from stress can cause people to be down in the dumps for long periods of time and develop what is known as Major Depression. According to Mills, Reiss and Dombeck, "Symptoms of Major Depression may include: sleep problems; fatigue; appetite changes; feelings of worthlessness, self-hate, and guilt; an inability to concentrate or make decisions; agitation, restlessness, and irritability; withdrawal from typical pleasurable activities; and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness." In a research study focusing on the coping mechanisms among students conducted by Deasy et al. states, "coping is defined as cognitive and emotional attempts to deal with the internal or external demands of the encountered situation. It is perceived as a process as opposed to a trait or outcome ". The results of this study showed three prevalent methods that students used to cope with psychological distress: escape/avoidance, support and taking control. The most frequent of these methods was the escaping and avoidance method. This included substance abuse, oversleeping, eating disorders and other detrimental habits. (http://journals.plos.org... http://mhn.centersite.org...) To me creating means that it is the sole perpetrator of anxiety and depression. I am stating that it is a contributor due to the stress that homework and tests can place on students. I am also stating that school is not the only reason why people have anxiety and depression. However, my claim is that the American education system increases stress, therefore, increasing the likelihood for depression and anxiety. Here is another article stating the influence on how tests can take a toll on students. http://brainconnection.brainhq.com... I will have to agree with you on the idea that teaching kids about coping mechanisms and how to deal with mental illnesses should not fall completely on the school. However, most parents don't have the right knowledge and resources to help their kids either. Part of the teaching that I believe schools should offer is helping the students recognize patterns of depression and anxiety so they can get the help they need whether it be from the school or from an outside source. I also think another part of the issue is the stigma place on mental illnesses. This article : http://www.newsweek.com... talks about how college specifically have a negative view on mental health. It talks about how some students who went to seek help ended up getting kicked out of college. This then caused students to be afraid of what might happen and therefore not going and seeking help when needed. You talk about how it is mostly home life that is causing mental illnesses. From that point of view I could see how you could come to the conclusion that its not the school's responsibility to provide the resources to help deal with these mental illnesses. So I must ask then, would you say that the school then have no effect on a students mental health? I would say by nature, because students spend an average of 7 hours a day at school during the school year, it must have some effect on the student. I also feel as if you are taking an all or nothing approach. Are you stating that the only way that our American education system can negatively impact students is if it is the only contributor? Say everyone is working on a group project, and five people work on it and get an A. From what I am getting from your statement " if it isn't only the tests and homework that is causing these issues, then the school is not pushing these students to have these mental illnesses." I would assume with the same logic, you'd be saying only one of the students ("home life') got the A on the project and the other student ("the American education system") did not contribute at all to get the A even though every student worked on it collectively. The impact that the American education system has on students is one a piece of what influences a students mental health. There are many others such as home life as you mentioned and social life. It is that the American education system has a negative impact because of the high levels of stress it places on the students with tests and excessive homework amounts (not the only contributors to stress just 2 of the examples I used). If we were to argue that the American education system is the only factor that impacts students health then I could agree with you that it is not the system at totally at fault. I believe it does play a part of it though.

My opponent claims homeschooling is more convenient: That’s distorting my words a bit. I’m not saying it’s more convenient for everybody. I said MAY be more convenient. Which I think is an undisputable fact. This asserts that moving schools is a great inconvenience-it is a minor inconvenience I have moved a total of three times in my life (from America to Cape town South Africa, from Cape town to Johannesburg SA, and from Jo’burg to Maryland). And like I said I have been homeschooled my whole life. It is actually a great convenience to be homeschooled. When I moved to America from South Africa we were so busy, it really helped for us to be home schooled. What about schools, people have committed suicide because they were bullied and made fun of so much. So you can’t just point out all the problems of home schooling, when there are also many problems with going to a real school. Problems are unavoidable "Firstly, the idea that children who have social, mental or physical problems.." What about bullying. Are their special schools for those who get treated badly? If home schooling is legal than parents have more choices about their childrens education. If home schooling were illegal than parents would have to send their kids to a school even if home schooling would fit their life style better. The government does make sure we're doing what we're supposed to. When the end of the school year comes we will have to have an evaluator come to our house and make sure we have done everything according to the laws of home schooling that have been set out. My work has to get checked at the end of every school year. We must fill out forms, show grades, You are arguing that regular schooling should be the only form of schooling. I’m saying home schooling and regular schooling should both be legal. There are conveniences and inconvenience for both of them. But if only regular schooling is legal that can cause inconveniences. More flexibility the family has much more flexibly in meeting theirs and their kids needs if they have both of these choices set out. It’s much more expensive to homeschool a child than send them to a private school. Homeschooling requires one parent to give up their job Most parents don’t each have a job. And in times like this I think many mom's wouldn't be able to. this is a massive financial blow Furthermore, it requires parents to buy teaching books, an added cost. We have a simple way of helping that problem. We just reuse text books, and you still have to buy books for a regular school. And it’s not like text books are expensive. “if a kid thinks he is not meeting enough other kids…He can simply stop being home schooled and go to a school.” My opponent assumes that socialization is a highly objective measure; that you wake up one morning and realise you aren’t socialized. It’s not like parents are anti schooling. At one point in my life I told my parents I wanted to go to a school the next year, they were perfectly fine with that. I never ended up going to school though as I changed my mind. My opponent never argued any right for parents to homeschool their children, but in any case, it is the government's role in our society to ensure that all children get a decent level of education; I wasn’t saying I got good grades. A’s and B’s are about average at my co-op. Experience does give my an advantage as I have been home schooled my whole life  Parents who homeschool their children aren't qualified teachers. Teachers need to go through a system of tertiary education, both in their own subject and in teaching as a whole, to become teachers; parents who homeschool their children don't have these qualifications, and thus won't be able to do the job as well. This a common miss understanding. The home school curriculums are made so that the student is able to do most of the work on his own. So that you don’t need a teacher. For example, for my Algebra I watch a video every day. Then I have to work out problems, then after my problems are checked I watch another video that explains all the problems so that I can see what I did wrong. Parents have to take on a big responsibility when they decide to home school. They will take it seriously.  Part of learning at school is the exposure to different opinions; not only because it is something students will have to get used to when they enter society, but also because it helps them to develop their own beliefs. When homeschooled, only one view will ever be taken into account. Consider, for example, the teaching of evolution; while at a public school evolution and creationism may both be put forward, a homeschooled student is likely to be exposed to only one side. That isn’t true. I think home schooled parents make sure their kids have knowledge of other ideas. I just took a course that concentrated almost completely on other religions, And I’m taking one next year too. In some subjects like science, knowledge has changed drastically from when parents were at school; ideas like evolution or continental drift were only accepted into scientific knowledge recently. Parents are unlikely to understand these ideas. That shows the common lake of understanding of home schoolers. Like I said my parents don’t even teach that much. I can ask them for help but the material is all in the books (which are continually being updated) all I have to do is go back to previous chapters. Home schooling is a right. I see from your profile that your for abortion (even late term). Why should woman have the right to get their babies killed. But parents not have the right to home school their kids? Missionaries. If you’re a missionary to another country when you visit America how are you going to school your children? There are countless reasons why a parent might not want their child to go to a school because of beliefs. Most home schoolers go to more events then a regular school boy. Thus they meet more kids their age, ad socialize .

Students that take education online often take it less seriously, it is also more difficult to test them as they could easily cheat- A written test would still b standard. by "kids" it sounds like you are suggest high schoolers- Online education isn't feasible at all for them as they are still required to go and learn witting a school building. I terms of college students, Online lessons often will not carry him/he as far as going and learning at the college would. While textbooks are very heavy, e-books are an option but DOES NOT count as online education- it would still be traditional education but with heavier textbooks replaced with an electronic option. Handwriting should NOT be avoided- you can't run away from it. No matter where you go and/or how you live, there are always forms that cannot be filled out online and still require you to write. You will always need to type AND write and while your handwriting does not need to be great- it just needs to be decently readable, Many people often blame the use of technology to be the cause of worse handwriting- While this isn't always the case, that also isn't the subject of this debate. It is faster to type than to write out your thoughts, that's why projects are often type -is school- rather than written out. HOWEVER, many students never learn to type properly as it isn't mandatory in many schools to take a typing class thus reducing ones efficiency, often to "search and peck" speeds... Digital storage isn't always better- while it makes it easier to create redundant copies of a file, I have seen many classmates lose there saved document BUT still have the physical copy to re-type from.

I have came across the homeschooling argument and now i want to start a debate. I am a con, so any pro is welcome.

This will be my first debate using this forum and I have only limited "formal" debate experience, but I will do my best to offer an entertaining debate. Debate is Accepted. I am comfortable with limiting the scope of this debate to High-School (roughly ages 15-18). I believe that the intent is clear, no need to muddy the waters and waste our time by incorporating younger age-groups that obviously won"t fit this model exactly. International is fine, I will admit to an incredibly limited knowledge of the differences in High School education abroad, but it seems that this is a more a debate of theory than exact practice, so that shouldn"t be a major issue. I accept your general designation of the 2 categories of Homework although I think we should clarify that we will need to debate the necessity of both Type 1 and Type 2. (Not just Type 2)I need for you to more clearly define the terms of a "Current School Day", Hours/General Breakdown/Start-Time/ETC. before we begin so that I may make the necessary adjustments in my logic/arguments. I want us to be discussing comparable school-days. For example, When I was in High School, School Hours were 8am-3pm. A comparable lengthening of the School Day if I understand you correctly would be an 8-4 school day with a reduction in homework? Please Clarify. Other than that I"m excited to begin my first debate. I will attempt to be as genuine and straight-forward as possible. I will attempt to offer arguments that I believe could be supported by rational persons acting rationally. -Bull_Diesel

Okay, so homework will prepare them, sure, which is why it should be OPTIONAL. If they do need to practice, they can, but if they don't need to, they shouldn't have to. Grade cause a great deal of stress among students.

I've actually been reading a few debates on here about homeschooling vs public school education. Honestly, I actually think that the homeschoolers have some good points; being able to hand craft their children's education sounds awesome to me. I've also read some success stories on different sites about how their kids easily get high tests scores and go on to college. The ways and methods they used to help their children get there were really creative and actually gave me a few ideas....However, I don't believe homeschooling should have to mean taking the kids out of school at all. As for posting a con side, I honestly can't think of any points I could make. Most of the homeschoolers in the stories that I've read used outside classes/activities/curriculum to teach their kids, and so the children weren't even being taught at home or by their parents. The parents were mainly there to pick curriculum or structure routines for their children, they didn't really teach.

The guidelines are the same as my other debate. Lets Go!!! Pro: A: Encourages responsible financial management. R: Judge, as a kid if you were to have some money given to you what would you do with it? ï¿½Most kids would go spend it on a candy bar or something else that would quickly be used and dispersed of. ï¿½Well, if you were to earn the money yourself, what would you do then? ï¿½It gives a different meaning to the money. ï¿½If you were to be given money than you would have no emotional attachment to it. ï¿½If you were to earn the money than the money seems to be worth more than just the number on the bill. ï¿½It is your money; you earned it all by yourself. ï¿½When you earn that money yourself you are most likely to save that money because you earned it yourself. ï¿½By allowing these kids earn their money then it would be teaching these kids responsible financial management. ï¿½Teaching this at this early age is crucial. ï¿½You cannot stress this enough. ï¿½This is essential to life in today's world that you know to manage you own money. ï¿½ E: Janet Bodnar, author of author of "Raising Money Smart Kids" and deputy editor at Kiplinger's Personal Finance, said "Until they work with cash, they don't understand the value of coins and currency." ï¿½If they don't work, Beacham said, they get used be being on the dole, and then when they get into college, their parents' funds are replaced by credit card spending because they want to live at the same level they did when they lived at home. Pro: A: Will increase Attendance R: Students would be more willing to come to school knowing that if they work hard and get good grades, they will be rewarded with a profit. This would reduce "hooky" and any other form of skipping school. Schools are mainly paid for every student that shows up a school. <--(public) Since students, for the most part, don't know that, this will also reduce conflict between troublemaker students and the teachers they hate.

Thanks for deciding to debate about this, I didn't think anyone would. It would actually really depend on the situation. For an elementary - middle school age child, I would want to stick to using outside classes either after school or during the weekends. I can't list a set number of hours since the classes would really vary and change throughout the year. For an older child I would want to start using the homeschooling workbooks/curriculum for everyday after school, during the holidays, but skipping the weekends. So I would say I would want to stick to about 2-3 hours per day for a highschool age child.