The Argument of Jessica Lahey - Essay Example

She is not afraid to say that she does not give homework willingly. The only reason why she gives homework is because if she didn’t, she would be considered an underperformer and a teacher who doesn’t care about improving students. At the beginning of her career, she gave lots of homework and did not care if the students complained about workload or not. She expected them to do the homework and follow the rules of the teacher without any complaints. The writer seeks to justify her position by explaining that at one point she also gave homework just like any other teacher. By doing this, she tries to say that she has tried both sides of the issue before coming up with her stand. She manages her risk by providing a detailed explanation of why she considers her argument right.

After being in a teaching career for thirteen years, she has raised a son, and she now experiences homework as a teacher and as a parent. She feels bad seeing her little, so Ben stressed with homework. She now considers the impact homework has on the students before assigning it to them. She says that the homework takes the place of her son’s childhood. When assigning homework, she never forgets the sacrifice that the child is going to give in order to order to complete the homework. She strongly defends her position on the issue and hopes to convince other teachers on the issue. However, her topic comes in a period when academic excellence has high value and parents are more interested in seeing their children excel academically rather than socially. The writer, therefore, takes an extraordinary risk since it is quite certain that not many parents or teachers are going to support her stand.

Having in mind that the issue is controversial, she justifies her stand saying that she is not the only teacher or parent questioning the homework issue. She says that the topic is being discussed in school meetings and internet chatrooms all over the world. The writer is very creative in the way she convinces the reader. He knows that elite private schools are known for good grades and hence uses them as examples. Jessica says “even elite private schools in New York City are vowing to lighten their homework load”. By giving such an example, she hopes to buy the argument of the reader and reduce the extent of the risk she has taken.

She continues to justify he stand in order to manage the risk taken by giving examples of other publications on the subject. She says that other writers such as Alfie Kohn, Sarah Bennett and Nan Kalish have previously discussed the issue and nothing much has been done about it. She points out that even Claudia Wallis a famous writer in Times Magazine has also discussed the issue. She indirectly says that the pressures of homework can drive students to mental illness suicide and even cheating acknowledging a film by Ms Abeles. The writer's risk management is very effective since through such justification it is hard to criticize her stand on the issue.

She claims to have asked the students about the impact that homework has on their performance. Surprisingly, the students claimed that without the homework their performance would go down. Even her son claimed that the homework helped to improve his mastery of concepts. It is, therefore, certain that homework is essential, and students are positive about it. However, she makes it clear that the amount of homework given is the problem and is her major concern. The interviewed students claimed that the homework was good, but lots of homework was not necessary. At this point, the writer’s creativity in convincing the reader about the issue is at its maximum. The issue that looked too risky in the beginning is well explained and has a lot of sense in it.

She takes a firm stand that she will use her son as a quality check on the amount of homework she gives. She uses her son to weigh the impact that homework will have so that her students will not be stressed with homework. She concludes by saying that students require some time for other issues such as playing and imagining. Jessica argues that it is not worth taking away such vital elements at the expense of doing a lot of homework that might not even benefit the child. At the end of her article, she successfully manages to discuss her point of view on the risky matter. Her creativity in justifying her stands increases the acceptability of her fact and thus it’s worth taking the risk.