3rd Core Writing Assignment
Although an old article, “Homework in elementary school is useless,” from Today’s Parent is still a wonderful example of terrible use of media. The author, Emma Waverman, is very biased to the idea that homework is useless. She begins the article with a very bold claim, “The studies are in. The results are conclusive. Homework in elementary school is useless.” This a very effective hook, but she quickly contradicts herself two paragraphs later. She mentions a very scholarly study from Duke University, trying to establish credibility. Further investigation of this study shows not only that the study was done decades ago, but that the study was very lacking in evidence and could make no definite conclusion. Furthermore, the abstract of the study suggests that although the results were inconclusive, the data would have pointed out that, with the right restrictions, homework is beneficial for students. She tries again with a Toronto District School Board study, but they found that generally homework improves student’s academic success. Mrs. Waverman failed to find concrete evidence that proves homework is detrimental to students, so she tries to fill this lack of an argument with more personal stories. She mentions how much stress her kids have and how she has cried doing homework with them. It is questionable how stressful and challenging elementary school homework is, but the argument cannot simply use personal experiences, as credibility is essential to any argument. Not only is her argument very weak, but she tries to distract the reader with other important topics that do not have to do with the main argument. She mentions how children need to spend more time with their family and get more exercise. Those are completely different topics and do not relate to the question of homework’s efficiency. Not only that, but she misspells one of her sources as “Heather Schumaker,” with the extra c. Mrs. Waverman’s credibility is down the drain and her argument is not well-made, resulting in a poor article. As for its media usage, it is another clickbait opinion that will get their audience, skeptical parents, start to question their parenting skills and make them overreact. The media does not inform or teach its readers and its main purpose is to gain notoriety, making it a bad use of media.
On the side of good use of media, “Homework: The useful and the useless,” from The Washington Post, provides a non-biased perspective on homework, as well as perspectives from students. The article clearly establishes that homework has always been a touchy subject for educators and that its efficiency has never clearly been proven nor disproven. Unlike Mrs. Waverman’s article, this article mentions the Duke’s study correctly, stating homework is beneficial up to a certain point, not outright rejecting its usefulness. After mentioning the study, Valerie Strauss, the author, has other student’s opinion on homework and their standards for helpful and useless homework. This article is an example of good media as it has multiple opinions and does not rashly take one side of the argument. The article only informs the reader and helps the reader make his or her own opinion.