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Brenda Clark
Professor Monique Williams
English 1A
Section: 014
29 August 2013
Reeling
in Research
The “Passion Project” introduced me to mirror
neurons. I was amazed to learn about the
concept of mirror neurons, and intrigued to read an article written by John
Marsh, titled “Do Mirror Neurons Give Us Empathy?” in order to further my
understanding of these neurons. I will
explain why I believe that the article intersects with my “Rule of Three” paper
focus of children being assigned too much homework by their teachers in the
educational system.
I
believe that the importance of homework has been exaggerated. I believe that homework should be a review of
the material that is taught in class, and should not be foreign material to a
student. Time spent outside of the
classroom completing homework should be limited, and not interfere with the
ability of a child to socialize with friends, or get enough sleep, as sleep is
necessary for a child to develop properly.
Spending too much time on homework would then, in my opinion, result in
a negative effect on a child’s performance in the classroom if the child
becomes either depressed due to lack of socialization or exhausted due to a
lack of sleep, for example. I can relate
my opinion to a statement in the article titled “Do Mirror Neurons Give Us
Empathy?” by Editor-in-chief Jason Marsh, that “the importance of mirror
neurons has been exaggerated” (Marsh 1).
There are benefits to both concepts of mirror neurons
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and homework, although one
must weigh out the benefits versus the risks of each, to determine how valuable
the benefits truly are. I have learned
that to absorb new material and improve one’s understanding and memory, sleep
is important. I feel as though it is
pointless to give a child/student an extreme amount of homework (extreme
meaning to me that it interferes with the student having any life of his/her
own outside of schoolwork), if it means that the student will become exhausted
and/or frustrated, and have a lesser likelihood of retaining and/or
transmitting the learned information. I
can relate education to culture, as in a quote by Jason Marsh which states
“that’s what culture’s about - the transmission of those learned skills (Marsh
3). There are many different types of education
as there are many different cultures.
One must have a passion for and comprehend the logistics of the
education or culture in order for the education or culture to stay alive and be
transmitted to future generations. As
stated by V.S. Ramachandran in the article by Jason Marsh, “mirror neurons are
important in transmitting skills from generation to generation” (Marsh 3). As in the concept of mirror neurons, I
believe that if a student is able to notice that a teacher has a passion for
the particular subject that he/she is teaching, it may be easier for the
student to gain a passion for that subject as well, therefore making it that
much easier for the student to complete homework, amounting in less time spent
outside of the classroom struggling, and a more balanced and healthy lifestyle
for the student.
As
you can see, I believe that the article “Do Mirror Neurons Give Us Empathy”
intersects with my “Rule of Three” paper focus of children being assigned too
much homework by their teachers in the educational system. The value of homework may be exaggerated as
may be the value of mirror neurons, although I am certain that there may be
benefits to both. I
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encourage the
evaluation of homework in the educational system and mirror neurons in the
brain in the future until there is able to be a more concrete explanation of
each.
