Stop Homework

Welcome back to Stop Homework.

And what better way to start off the school year than with encouraging news from an elementary school in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, north of Toronto, which just banned homework. Among the reasons:

* there is no clear link between homework and academic achievement
* poor students are at a distinct disadvantage
* homework causes problems for families, including contributing to marital stress

Read about it here.

With a lot of hard work on our part, we can get other schools and districts to follow suit.

In upcoming posts, I’ll let you know what parents are doing in their communities to change the tide.

According to seattlepi.com, a Seattle middle school science teacher has been suspended for two weeks without pay for refusing to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The teacher, Carl Chew, who has been teaching for about eight years, said he has seen kids struggle through the test with few positive results to show for the time and effort expended.

You can read the rest of the story here and read his statement here.

The Toronto School Board has just implemented the best homework policy I’ve seen. The policy, which will affect close to 300,000 students, focuses on quality, not quantity, suggests that homework in the early grades be limited to reading, talks at length about the value of family time, and recommends that all homework assignments be differentiated. I hope that the Toronto policy becomes a model for other school district across Canada and in the U.S. as well. You can read all about the policy in my earlier blog post here.

According to shanghaidaily.com, the Shanghai Education Commission has cancelled homework for first and second graders. The move is part of a push to ease the study burden on young students.

The Toronto committee formed to reassess homework unanimously passed the proposed new policy. The proposal will be put to a vote before the entire School Board on April 16.

Frank Bruni, a parent who has been a driving force for change, made a presentation in support of the proposed policy at the Committee meeting. Here’s what he said:

Deputation
by Frank Bruni

Albert Einstein said, “Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty” yet every day children across Toronto are burdened with excessive amounts of homework; causing the gift we wish to give them to be perceived as punishment.

As an executive recruiter I have seen first hand the effects of our 24/7 always on society, where adults work long into the night and working on the weekend is commonplace. So when we talk about reducing the amount of homework many adults scratch their heads and say that we are not preparing our children for the future that they will face.
Read the rest of this entry »

After three months of reviewing research on homework and meeting with parents, principals, and teachers, the Toronto, Canada, School District Board is now taking a very close look at a new proposed homework policy. The proposal focuses on quality, not quantity, suggests that homework in the early grades be limited to reading, talks at length about the value of family time, and recommends that all homework assignments be differentiated.

The draft proposal, although not perfect, is one of the very best I’ve seen short of those recommending abolition of homework and is definitely worth reading. If you’re trying to change homework policy in your community, there is very good language that you might want to adopt. Read it here.

Here’s a good news article with highlights from the proposal.

If you want to know more about what one parent did to bring the issue to the forefront, read Frank Bruni’s guest blog entry here.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in England, a union which represents 160,000 teachers, will debate a motion at its annual conference next week calling for an end to homework for elementary school children and cutting back the amount for teenagers. According to The Telegraph, “The move comes amid growing fears that children are being increasingly stressed by too much work too young. Pupils in England are the most tested in the western world and it is claimed that exposure to academic study - coupled with a reduction in play - may harm children’s long-term development.” Read the article here.

In Finland, schools starts at the age of 7, high school students spend less than 1/2 hour a night on homework, and very little time is spent on standardized test preparation. This Wall Street Journal article titled “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?” takes a closer look at schools in Finland to show how their students come to be so well educated.