a rhetorical essay 4 full papes MLA format

Professor

English 205 (MW)

18 March 2015

Rhetoric Essay #2 Final Draft

Homework Hinders Hunger

The progress of public compulsory education is at a halt, frosted over by the heedless and shallow practice of homework, prohibiting learning. We live in this stationary hour as a result of a conceptual idea of success having been too indeterminate to survive actual application. Fickle are those convinced that more homework relates directly with advancement, for absolutely no evidence proves that children need or benefit academically from extra overload of assignments. In fact, the addition of after-school work subtracts vital hours of childhood, causing an expansive amount of suffering for not just youngsters in school, but their entire family. If no collective and persistent effort is invested immediately to jumpstart the clock, the future will undoubtedly hold catastrophic consequences for children who never had time to be so.

As this is true education, let us begin with a definition: definition, the fixed, clear meaning of a word, phrase, or idea. The majority of educators, too weak-minded and rigid to realize otherwise, have dubbed their twisted interpretation of education as its true definition. But there is only one meaning. Education is the yearning to discover what a person does not know he/she did not know. It is embracing a seeker mentality, it is a never-ending journey, and it is accepting to learn because of experience rather than banking on it. Any exercise stifling the natural and necessary craving to learn is sickening, for this habitual practice renders the true definition of education useless.

Can the homework problem be fixed? Luckily, we are clearly not dealing with the intelligent, for which I would place heavy shame upon for intentional carelessness. There is no tactful wit or clever plotting against youngsters by assigning homework, so teachers' intentions may in fact be satisfactory. Let us even deem them "loving fools". But regardless of motive, any and all who assign pointless busywork are hollow-headed enough to desperately require the right guidance. After all, how can adults possibly teach what they do not know or what they cannot define?

The most frightening truth is how greatly homework hinders hunger to learn. Most assignments sent home with children are designed to, as so-called teachers say "re-enforce" the lessons taught earlier in the day. Really, though, children are not fools. Regurgitating facts, memorization, and thoughtlessly copying down vocabulary words are not enlightening, it is not a task to look forward to, and most of all children eventually lose the desire to voluntarily seek out help. I welcome any argument able to assert how children would, in fact, find slogging away at worksheets appealing, but until then I need not say more. Ria K, a fifteen year-old sophomore, spends three to six hours a night on homework; the amount of time consistently matching other high schoolers her age. "It’s drilling the problems into my head," Ria exclaims. "School isn’t even about learning anymore, it’s about grades and repetition . . . I’ve lost my love of learning, and that’s sad." More effects of homework include sleep deprivation (which leaves students mentally-unprepared for the next day at school), high stress, lack of cultivating basic life skills, family troubles, and even panic attacks. Mia, a high school freshman who also participates in extracurricular activities comes to her conclusion that "the focus of homework seems to have shifted from quality to quantity, and students are suffering." Horrid as this sounds, what other scenario can explain why students have no appetite to learn when we are spoon-feeding them trash? Worse, as pigs are fed slop before lined up for slaughter, Ria and Mia are just as well condemned to collapse, because quae est habitus manus singulas (what is habit stays).

Assigning homework also enforces a cruel and hurtful statement to both students and parents alike. When teachers believe that they have the right to send children home with time-consuming idle-work, their actions are equivalent to saying that they cannot trust that the students learned the material well enough. Therefore, teachers feel it necessary to supersede the parent's wishes by welcoming themselves under the family's roof, to eat up their personal time. This violation is worse than a slap in the face, it is out-ragingly disrespectful, and more like the betrayal of Judas's kiss because of its masked blow. Parents, who do not know better, are fooled into surrendering the premises without complaint because all they sincerely care for is what they are under the impression that they are receiving: an education for their children.

Now, refraining from anger in order to inspect rationally, I must beseech: If teachers are fearful that a day full of lessons is not enough, how truly efficient and effective are class time hours? We already know the answer because homework exists, and children are working "second shifts" as author and education expert Alfie Kohn describes. But chaining children from afar just for self-reassurance or fear of failure is absolutely foul behavior, especially coming from leading educators.

W. E. B. Du Bois, an extremely wise writer, has a thorough understanding of how any problem has the capability to be fixed, and if not fixed, mended. His idea is simple to understand: Every value starts within the individual, eventually spreading to an entire society (or in this case, a classroom or school). Mindset, or what happens on the small scale influences what happens on the large scale. With his concept deduced in combination with the definition of education, the start of rebooting schooling practices can finally begin.

On top of ridding every child from homework, new and healthy activities need to be actively incorporated into the family routine. The goals for these practices is to strengthen three parts of being a human to their utmost potential; having a healthy mind, body, and soul/moral compass. These three absolute necessities for youngsters and their family are prerequisites for any true educational course.

To strengthen the mind, one of the most effective and scientifically-proven ways is to read on a daily basis, because reading motivates the brain to exercise literacy, problem-solving, predictions, and drawing conclusions; all of which are necessary to academic and life success. Dr. Seuss writes: "The more that you read the more that you will know, the more that you know the more places you'll go,” which could not be more appropriately stated. Preferably, parents should read to their children every night to set the appropriate example of sticking to a constructive habit and to stress reading's importance.

Secondly, to acquire a healthy body, children need to be rested, fit, and awake for class time, certainly doable with the absence of homework. Plenty of sleep, a healthy immune system, vitamin D, and robust nutrition, currently a luxury for many students, should now be placed at parents' and teachers' priority. These minimal standards cannot be overlooked under any circumstances.

Lastly, to strengthen the soul. Daily interaction between family members incorporates valuable lessons that parents feel appropriate to teach their children. Parents and children play two very different roles in the household; parents root down a strong trunk of core values and children eventually emulate the same beliefs through their own branches. A fruitful and abundant family tree requires maintenance, but the results are lasting. Strong family relationships created by regular, everyday conversation can even repel pesticides that attempt to creep in; poisons such as homework.

All three health necessities can easily be exercised every night at the dinner table; the mind through talk and discussion, the body through nutrition and rest, and the soul through family time. Guaranteed, a new lifestyle with improved habits will eventually prove education to be more than just homework.

When you first enrolled your child in school, was it your dream to pronounce ownership of someone able to recite the area of a triangle, or to an individual who would eventually graduate with the passion of pursuing their own dreams, with hopefully some life skills compiled along the way? Did you envision the teacher raising your child with their inescapable influence? Did you foresee never-ending exhaustion from children the ages of sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, or younger?

Homework eliminates learning. The monotonous and repetitive system is fueled by the idea that a successful grade can only be accomplished through mindless work, rather than being motivated intrinsically. I am so pained over this current problem because of where it is assured to continue in the future. I am scared to think that I myself may be the mother of an unborn child who will have to endure worse schooling conditions than there are now. What I want most dearly is what the nation needs immediately. What I see as responsibility, teachers see as unnecessary. What is most preposterous in schools is what is seen as "normal" to them. Stop stopping and re-redefine education to its correct meaning. Children are not the key to the future; we are dangling the key in front of them, even faking a toss, because until they are adults, we are supposed to teach them. Wake up, and begin again. Teach effective class lessons, send students home, and leave the rest to be. Many children will thrive from no homework, whereas some may burn their fingers a bit or stumble and take a hard fall. But those are the children that would not have finished homework, anyway (and even then, there is always something to be learned from consequence). For the love of all that we have worked for and what children will soon have to bear, begin now with a fresh start and welcome a world without homework.

Works Cited:

Breaks, Suli. "Why I Hate School But Love Education || Spoken Word." YouTube. YouTube, 2 Dec. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI>

Fuglei, Monica. "The Homework Debate: The Case Against Homework." Concordia Portland Online. 14 Nov 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

< http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/news/the-homework-debate-the-case- against-homework/>

Khan, Salman. "Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education." TED Talks. 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education ?language=en>

Kohn, Alfie. The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Life Long, 2006. Print.

Oljavo, Holly E. "Do You Have Too Much Homework?" The Learning Network Do You Have Too Much Homework Comments. The New York Times, 16 June 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

<http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/do-you-have-too-much- homework/?_r=0>

"Quotes About Reading." (3393 Quotes). Good Reads. Web. 18 Mar. <2015.http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/reading>