Should homework be banned?

Classes should not necessitate homework in order to impart relevant information

Question: Should homework be banned?
Position1 of 2›: Yes, homework should be banned
Argument1 of 2›: Classes should not necessitate homework in order to impart relevant information

If information is not being taught in class, then teachers are not helping students receive that information in the best way possible. Teachers are trained to deliver information effectively, and many students don't have the skills to teach or review themselves. Inversely, instead of new material, class becomes focused on homework itself.

The argument

On this view the case begins with where responsibility for teaching properly belongs. A course is allotted a fixed amount of time, and designing instruction that fits within it is part of the teacher's job. If a teacher is not effectively communicating their content in the time allotted within the course schedule, proponents argue, that is a failure of planning or method, and it is no excuse to overwork students to compensate for an educational failing that is not theirs. Homework is frequently the mechanism by which that compensation happens quietly, with the cost transferred to the student's own hours rather than borne by the design of the course. The pattern proponents point to is a familiar one: teachers assign large chunks of information that students are then forced to learn independently and are afterwards tested on. Two objections follow. The first concerns role. Teaching is not only the transmission of content but the supervision of how it is learned, and it is the teacher's job to make sure their students are practising the proper learning skills. That supervision cannot happen when the learning takes place unobserved. A student left alone with unfamiliar material will use whatever method they already have, including a poor one, with nobody present to correct it. The second objection concerns measurement. Work produced away from the classroom reflects the conditions under which it was produced as much as the understanding of the person who produced it, so it is a weak signal of what any particular student has grasped, and homework is an ineffective way for teachers to measure their students' progress. An exercise that neither teaches reliably nor measures reliably has little claim on students' time, and proponents conclude that classes should not be built so as to necessitate it.

Premises

[P1]If a teacher cannot communicate content within scheduled class time, overworking students with homework is no legitimate way to compensate for that failing. [P2] Forcing students to learn large chunks independently and then be tested on them is an ineffective way to measure progress and shifts the teacher's job onto the student. [C] Therefore, because classes should not necessitate homework to impart information, homework should be banned.

Counter-arguments

Individual studying is part of learning, and teachers can help students process outside information when they ask questions in class. Not all course information can be communicated within the limited time frame.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise assumes homework exists to compensate for poor teaching, but the counter's point that not all material fits the scheduled hours offers an alternative account in which independent study is part of the design rather than a failure of it. [Rejecting P2] That homework is a poor measure of progress is an argument about assessment, not about practice — work set for consolidation or reading need not be graded at all — and neither premise supports a ban rather than better-set homework.

Proponents cited

Mike Anderson
“Students now need more help, and this class period disappears trying to correct and fix homework. Again, there’s no time to teach a real lesson, so the teacher explains the new content quickly and students rush out of class, once again primed to fail at the night’s homework. The loop continues like this, and before long, Mrs. Nelson isn’t even preparing fun activities or lessons. She’s simply planning on spending most of class going over homework challenges and then explaining the next homework assignment.”
Pat Wyman
“Many kids are working as many hours as their overscheduled parents and it is taking a toll - psychologically and in many other ways too. We see kids getting up hours before school starts just to get their homework done from the night before…While homework may give kids one more responsibility, it ignores the fact that kids do not need to grow up and become adults at ages 10 or 12. With schools cutting recess time or eliminating playgrounds, kids absorb every single stress there is, only on an even higher level. Their brains and bodies need time to be curious, have fun, be creative and just be a kid.”