Posted by Midori

Four paragraphs with five sentences each? Challenge accepted.

Never has there been as dark a blemish on the history of humankind as that of torture. Going as far back as the 21st century BC, the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu details early use of physical mutilation as a method of persuading suspects of crime to confess to the accusations[1]. To this day from the ancient times, the purpose and methods of torture have evolved along with the growth of civilisation and technology. Give or take the past millennia or two, one form of torture has never changed: homework. You may be confused as to what homework has to do with torture, however once the similarities have been laid out, the results may be rather shocking.

Up to the 21st century AD, the assignment of extracurricular work has been a very commonplace practice. Never once has the negative psychological impacts of homework been assessed and evaluated - until now. Going through the many definitions of the word torture, one aspect has been universally recognised: the act of causing physical, or mental pain in order to do something or give information, or as an act of cruelty[2]. To quote the highly regarded Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, “the purpose of torture is not getting information - it’s spreading fear”[3]. Let us take a look at how homework becomes relevant: by enforcing students to engage in work outside of the classroom, we are restricting the essential out-of-class part of their life and consequently, we are taking away their freedom, both physically and mentally.

You, me, everyone has fallen under this invisible imprisonment of our lives where we slave away against our wills and sacrifice our freedom, would that not count as a form of torture? Down as far low as 30% of parents have been reported to supervise their children while they do their homework[4], out of which as many as 90% enforced some kind of control that involved the removal of distractions such as mobile phones or computers. Never in the history of humankind has the ulterior motives of education been questioned, nor have the issues of oppression of youths in the form of homework be raised. Going between parents, students, and teachers, out-of-class education has always been blindly accepted as the de-facto way of self-education. To this day, 90% of the 1 billion children worldwide have been subjected to the form of torture known as education[5].

Turn-of-the-century generations have awakened to the horrors of capital punishment. Around the world, millions protest against the terrible acts of oppression committed daily against innocent lives. And while we fight against these terrors, we must never forget the hundreds of millions of children who suffer under torture by homework. Desert and abandon the farce of education - for it is but a front for suppression of freedom. You, me, everyone is responsible in ending the global violation of our human rights through the administration of homework.

References:
1. G. Hallevy (2013) “The Right to be Punished: Modern Doctrinal Sentencing”
2. Cambridge Dictionary of Modern English
3. Eduardo Galeano Interview with Amy Goodman (2013), Democracy Now
4. H. Cooper, J. J. Lindsay, B. Nye. Homework in the Home: How Student, Family, and Parenting Style Differences Relate to the Homework Process. Contemporary Educational Psychology 2000:25(4), 464-487
5. UNICEF global statistics, 2014