Toronto School Board Considers Scaling Back Homework

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.

Guest Blogger: My Life as a Homework Protester

Today’s guest blogger is “FedUpMom”, the mother of a 10-year-old who attends a public school in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

My Life as a Homework Protester
by FedUpMom

My life as a homework protester began last year, when my daughter was in 4th grade. The straw that broke the camel’s back was an assignment which came home every week: look up 10 spelling words in the dictionary and copy out the definitions. My daughter is a slow writer and this added up to an hour’s misery. I was furious. I went to her teacher and said, “the definitions homework takes my daughter forever; we’re not doing it.” He said, “Oh, if it takes her too long to write out, she can look it up on the internet and print it out. That’s what a lot of the kids do.” This might be quicker, but it’s still pointless, and I pity the tree that gets killed to provide the paper. I said, “if the goal is that my daughter should know the meaning of those words, we will discuss the words with her and make sure she knows the meaning. Then we’ll write a note telling you what we did”. He agreed. Right there my child’s homework headache was cut way down.

Next, I went to the principal to talk about homework overload. I wanted to send a survey to the parents, asking how they felt about homework: the principal rejected the idea on the grounds that it was “too adversarial”. (You want to see adversarial? Go visit some of those parents at 7:00 p.m. when they’re trying to get their kids through a mountain of homework.) Then she touched on several themes that would return every time I talked to her.

1.) “Maybe you can arrange for less homework now, but I’m warning you, when she gets to 5th grade, she’ll be required to do a lot of homework, and she needs to be prepared”. Now that my daughter is in 5th grade, Ms. Principal warns me about the heavy homework load in 6th grade. Is my daughter supposed to spend 4th grade learning how to handle 5th grade, 5th grade learning how to handle 6th grade, and so on forever? When does she learn something that’s worth learning for its own sake?

2.) “Your daughter should join the after-school homework club.” This is a cop-out. Kids have better things to do after school.

3.) “Your daughter is lazy and stubborn; you are emotional and over-involved.” Absolutely right. And those are our good qualities!

What to Do About Reading (cont’d)

In this blog, and in every media interview, I often lament that students don’t read for pleasure. If you’re also interested in this topic, I suggest you read The Book Whisperer, a blog in Teacher Magazine by Donalyn Miller, who writes about how to inspire and motivate student readers. Here’s an excerpt from a recent entry:

When I have denounced teaching whole-class novels in past entries, the comments I received from readers spanned a range of emotions from hearty agreement to derision. I feel emotional about this topic, too, so let’s take emotion out of the equation and face some truths:

No one piece of text can meet the needs of all readers. A typical heterogeneous classroom may have a range of readers that spans four or more grade levels. It is impossible to find a book that is at an instructional level for all of these students.
Continue reading “What to Do About Reading (cont’d)”

From My Mailbox: Letter from a Teacher in England

The other day I received thiis letter from a middle school teacher in England:

Dear Sara

I have been a teacher for the past thirty years and I completely agree with you about homework. I often feel like a lone voice in the staff room. My brother’s two children (ages 9 and 12) have been completely turned off school – and the main reason is the ridiculous amount of mind-numbingly pointless tasks set for homework. Last week, my niece had to make a model of a seed (wait for it) out of cake! Their father said and I quote: “It is ruining our lives!” Every Sunday they have to devote to homework when they should be out on their bikes or practising the piano etc. I would even go so far as to say that it is a form of child abuse! As a teacher I cannot keep thinking of “useful” things to set my pupils day in and day out just to conform to the school “homework policy”. Then I have to mark it as well as all the other work they do in class. It also wastes a huge amount chasing pupils up, interrogating them when they come up with excuses etc. It fact it has a detrimental effect on staff pupil relationships. Let’s get rid of it altogether! Staff will be happier, pupils will be far happier and less stressed out and will come to school much fresher and eager to learn.

Step 3 in San Marino, California: Presentation to the School Board

In San Marino, California, Tracy Mason has been organizing parents to try to change homework policy in her District. You can read about what she’s been doing here and here.

When she got the opportunity to talk to the School Board, this is what she said:

Hello.

Thank you for allowing me to address the board. My name is Tracy Mason, and I’m a San Marino resident and parent of a 6th grader at Huntington middle school.

I am here tonight, as a concerned parent and as a representative of many other parents in San Marino who are beginning to question the large amount of time and resources which are devoted to homework. We want you to respect that homework is an intrusion into our family time.

We do not feel that we need to justify other uses of after-school hours. It is the responsibility of the district and educators to justify the use of OUR time.
Continue reading “Step 3 in San Marino, California: Presentation to the School Board”

Teachers in England Will Soon Debate Motion to Abolish Homework

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.”

Guest Blogger: Update from Danville, California

Today’s guest blogger, Kerry Dickinson, gives an update on her organizing efforts in Danville, California. Kerry is the mother of two middle school age boys, a former middle and high school teacher, a current part-time substitute teacher, and a stay at home mother. She, and Julie Kurtz, the mother of two teens, a Mental Health Director, and a licensed marriage and family therapist in the San Francisco East Bay as well as teacher at a local Junior College, have been actively working to change homework policy in their community. Kerry wrote about their initial organizing attempts in a November guest blog entry and she also wrote an op-ed in her local newspaper.

Update from Danville, California
by Kerry Dickinson

In November, 2007, Julie Kurtz and I took an informal, email survey about homework among parents in our school district and received 60 responses. The survey asked questions like, “What percent of your child’s homework do you feel is of a high quality and what percentage is of a low quality? How much time do your children spend on homework? How do you define meaningful homework?” We compiled the results and presented them to the Director of Instruction for Student Services in our school district in the San Ramon Valley. We also gave the Director of Instruction research articles on homework and other information related to homework.

Not long after, the Director of Instruction informed us that the SRVUSD (San Ramon Valley Unified School District) would be forming a homework task force to reevaluate the current homework policy. And, I was invited to participate on the task force. I accepted the invitation because Julie’s full-time job prevented her from participating. The task force includes 19 people – a sample of parents, teachers, & administrators. It has met several times since the beginning of the year and will continue to meet until May, most likely, when a new policy will be presented to the public and to the Board for approval.

In the meantime, one of the local newspapers, the Danville Weekly, has written two pieces on homework to keep this issue in the public’s eye. You can read them here and here.

Julie and I are very hopeful that the new policy will be better than the old one and that steps will be taken to insure implementation of the new policy, hopefully beginning next fall.