Persuasive essay on homework and student workload

Homework has actually been a normal part of the everyday academic activities of trainees across several knowing organizations. It is not a concealed reality that a good deal of examining the found out abilities and knowledge of students are assessed through homework. Thus, it is of utmost significance for both teachers and trainees alike to treat research not only with a substantial length of time and attention but also with a certain amount of vital thinking.

But although there are those who declare that homework has its favorable functions, Alfie Kohn thinks otherwise.

In his article "Rethinking Homework," Kohn argues that there is "is absolutely no proof of any academic gain from appointing homework in primary or intermediate school" and that "the correlation is weak" in between the question of "whether kids do homework" (or just how much they do) and its supposed procedures for the supposed accomplishment of trainees in learning (Kohn).

In essence, Kohn espouses the concept that there is little or no advantage in offering students homework precisely because it does the reverse of promoting the learning procedure as a meaningful experience, of making the student lose interest rather of stimulating the sensibilities of the student.

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Kohn further argues that "over the last quarter-century the burden has increased most for the youngest kids, for whom the evidence of favorable impacts isn't just dubious; it's nonexistent.

" If this is certainly the case, then there is an engaging factor to desert the task of giving students homework since it does not deliver any quantifiable outcome, nor does it offer any advantage for students at all.

In reality, Kohn appears to focus on this non-existence of the advantages of homework in order to install the most direct attacks to the expansion of homework in various academic organizations. The counter-argument for the core argument of Kohn might rest on the facility of any real and measurable accomplishment derived from research.

Unfortunately, Kohn firmly believes that there is not real statistical information to corroborate the argument that homework does indeed reinforce the learning experience of students. In fact, Kohn further states that “the correlation is weak and tends to disappear when more sophisticated statistical measures are applied” (2007), thus debating the point that the clamoring for the benefits of homework is an illusion. Indeed, our academic institutions should not settle for methods that do not essentially provide the students with the necessary tools for learning.

If the academic institutions continue to make use of homework as a fundamental indicator of the acquired learning of students, there might soon come a time when the graduates of these institutions fill the work force, creating a work force abundant with graduates who have not essentially acquired the learning they need apart from not having the capacity to measure what they have learned. Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman argue that “schools began to vie for more and more homework at earlier stages” after 1986 (Gill and Schlossman, p.27).

This essentially indicates that there has been an increase in the appropriation of homework among the younger batch of students across numerous schools. It can thus be said that there is a corresponding clamor for giving the load of tasks to students at earlier and earlier stages, thus giving one the impression that there is a sort of ‘vacuum’ in the learning process wherein a huge amount of learning experience should be filled in order to compensate for the growing number of students.

However, even if there is a presumed ‘vacuum’ in the learning process among the hierarchy of students in terms of age, one cannot easily embrace the application of homework to younger and younger students in order to curb this ‘vacuum’. As a response to the mounting of homework on the shoulders of the younger generation, Kohn thus asserts that parents and teachers alike should “support from administrators who are willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. ” This may come in many different forms instead of the conventional use of homework.

In a nutshell, Kohn proposes that both educators and parents should take a large chunk of the role in educating themselves all the more instead of pinning the responsibilities on the part of the younger generation. Further, Kohn asserts that “standardized homework fallacies” should be given more thinking, in the sense that it should be remolded according to the actual challenges that beset the entire learning institution, and that the amount of homework should be reduced and reduced all the more.

In essence, Kohn emphasizes the importance or the essence of homework in the context of student improvement; categorizing the homework as best in classrooms “if shared and not just checked” (Kohn). Grading assignments denote that a student may actually make his or her assignment for the sake of academic compliance alone, while the verity of “learning” is reprimanded.

He further stresses that instead of grading the assignments of student in a model standard, students should be given the chance to explain what they have done and explore with one another—brainstorming would be a suitable term—in such way, they shall be able to enlighten one another with the diverse impact of a certain homework and then find means to develop.

All these tantamount to the idea of experimenting and “raising the bar” to a more “likable” manner may eventually open a larger opportunity for students to change their approach to the whole idea of homework and apparently result in a warmer classroom environment.

Works Cited Gill, Brian and Schlossman, Steven. "The Lost Cause of Homework Reform. " American Journal of Education 109. 1 (2000): 27-62 pp. <http://links. jstor. org/sici? sici=0195-6744%28200011%29109%3A1%3C27%3ATLCOHR%3E2. 0. CO%3B2-1 >. Kohn, Alfie. "Rethinking Homework". 2007. PRINCIPAL. <http://www. alfiekohn. org>.