Essay: Duties vs. hobbies

In Thinking Skills, we have been given a task which consist on writing an essay with the following topic:

Some people believe that children should not be given homework everyday, while others believe that they must get homework frequently in order to be successful at school. Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

Essay: Duties vs. hobbies

Nowadays, it is a great debate if children at school should be given homework or not. Up to which point is it convenient to send homework to students?

On the one hand, I agree that children should be given homework everyday in order to be successful at school due to different issues. School assignments would make students to practice and to master a subject, making their minds exercise. While more activities they do about a subject, the more they will acknowledge. It also helps children to focus and practice on how to manage their times and prioritize activities. In their near future, kids will grow and will probably assist to the university, were the quantity of things given to study and practical works are incremented in an unbelievable way. If they already know how to manage their times as they thit in school with homework, they wouldn´t have almost no trouble on adjusting to it.

On the other hand, most kids loathe doing homework because it limits the free-time they have. After being a couple of hours in school, kids might need a time for themselves in order to waste it on their hobbies, on their passions or even to rest after a tiring day. Instead, they have to get home and do homework, which let them almost no time for living their lives as they want to. What´s more, an excess of homework may lead children into stress, affecting the kid's life.

In conclusion, I personally think, although homework might be stressing to children, it is necessary in order to exercise their minds and don't lose their track in school. This should be done as long as the tasks given to students are regulated in such a way they can waste time in their hobbies and in homework.

The Edukators

The movie "The Edukators" was published in 2004 and directed by Hans Weingartner. It takes place in Berlin. The movie is about three young people which are anti-capitalist. To fight against capitalism, they enter to the houses of people from the high-society and reorganize the furniture, leaving a note signed by "The Edukators"

Capital punishment

Capital punishment is a very complex issue that people are talking a lot nowadays. Should capital punishment be legalized?

On the hand, people in favour of capital punishment argue that it may bring about positive effects due to the fact that if a life’s person is taken, the person who committed the murder should suffer the same consequences. However, this should be carried out ones there is enough evidence and with a logical reason. There is a movie, “A time to kill” in which the father of a little girl who was rapped, killed the men that made that to his daughter. In this movie, there was an unfair distribution of rights between white and black people, because white people were ‘superior’ or with more power than black people. Nevertheless, the main character of the movie, Carl Lee, the father of the young girl, was later release of the charges of murder of this two rapist and set up in freedom. I wouldn’t have sent him to prison due to the fact that, in my opinion, the father was right to take justice in his own hands. If he hadn’t killed them, the two rapist would have been released. Also, I agree with capital punishment if, after a criminal is given a second chance, he or she decided to do the same than before, throwing that he or she hadn’t learnt.

On the other hand, I would disagree with capital punishment because everybody have the right to live. What's more, sometimes, people are wrongfully convicted and a person who was not guilty of a crime, may be sentenced to death with no reason. Moreover, if you take away the right to life of the person, you are not giving him or her, the chance to change and to become a better person, you are taking away the second chance that this person may need. When capital punishment occurs, the family of the criminal may be psychologically tormented because of the way they suffered the loss of a relative.

In conclusion, I am more against than in favor of capital punishment because although you may think it is the best way to finish with crimes, you may be ignoring other options that are more logical. One of them, would be, for example a better trained and equipped police and an effective system of administration of justice, as it was in the movie “A time to kill” were the justice was equally for Carl Lee and the lawyer who was against him.

Wrongful Convictions

The police convicted an innocent man called Marvin Anderson to 15 years in prison. He was later released because a DNA test.

Critical thinking

In the new subject Thinking Skills we study critical thinking, which can be used to analyze arguments. In arguments, claims are always needed to support your statement, this statement can be true or false, but you must support your idea. Inside credibility criteria there are different ways to analyze the source of evidence given (neutrality, vested interest, bias, expertise, reputation, eyewitness, corroboration and selectivity) depending of what i am going to explain now. When a source is neutral, that means, that it does not prefer one side or the other, is known as "neutrality". The "Vested interest" is when people may take a particular side and decide if they may change the information or not. As regard"Bias" which is to have importance on a particular side. It is named "Expertise" when you can realize that it has a very confident evidence, given by an expert. "Reputation", as the name says, it depends of the status that the person has, you can trust more o less. "Eyewitness" which is someone who is watching or participating for the event, someone who can prove it because he/she was there. Concerning "Corroboration" that has the idea to connect the different parts of the "puzzle" so as to conclude the evidence. "Selectivity" is the evidence chosen so as to support the argument.