It's A Matter of Debate

Debate Topic 1: Video games are too violent
Pros:
- Promote shooting, killing and violent actions which are unusual in the real world.
Examples: Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Crossing Fire
- To increase the effects, producers often emphasis the violent scenes
- Statistics:
+ For every 10 minutes of playing video games or computer games, boys between the ages of eight and 18 will see between two and 124 acts of violence. (Source: Mediaviolence.org)
+ 78 percent of acts of violence in the first ten minutes of video games depict lethal acts of violence. 78 percent of the action is shown up close, and half of the violent segments have humor in them. (Source: Mediaviolence.org)
- It has become a trend: producers are aiming to come up with video games that are as violent as possible in order to get more profits.
+ In 2012, only 9% of video games are rated M - Mature. However, in 2013, the number has gone up to 12%. (Source: ESRB.org)
Cons:
- Most parents strictly control their children's video games pattern and habit, so video games are violent but at an acceptable level.
+ 73% of parents regularly check a game's rating before making purchase (Source: theESA.com)
+ 95% of parents monitor the content of the games their children play (Source: theESA.com)
- Violent games present only a small portion of video games in general. Therefore, it is unreasonable to conclude that video games could be assumed to be too violent.
+ In 2013, 46% of video games were rated For Everyone, while only 12% are considered Mature (18+) (Source: ESRB.org)
+ 64% parents believe games are a positive part of their children's lives (ESRB.org)

Debate Topic 2: Homework should be banned.
Pros:
- No homework gives students more free time to spend on their hobbies, their friends and families
- No homework also results in less a less stressful life for students
- Homework has little value in enhancing education since it is a requirement. Students generally do not like being forced to do something and thus, they would gain nothing from doing required homework. Homework would often stress students out, exhaust them and make them hate school more. In other words, homework could devalue
+ Statistics:
+ 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor. (Source: news.stanford.edu)
Cons:
- Homework helps students to apply the knowledge they learn in class to a variety of problems
+Sometimes homework has real life problems that teach students useful problem solving skills
Examples: my math homework asked me to develop a model predict the growth of Ebola, or to calculate the amount of money I could earn from a bank's saving interest.
- Practice makes perfect and homework help foster what students learn in class, hence they would understand more and remember the information longer. This could also means that the curriculum could be more rigorous and cover more area of information, making a course more interesting and informative.
- Homework could give many children a meaningful way of spending their free time instead of playing video games and watching TV.