No More Homework !?!

Has homework reached critical mass in Toronto?

Families across the greater Toronto Area will be on the edge of their seats in the upcoming weeks as they wait to hear whether or not Toronto District School Board trustees will make the groundbreaking decision to ban or restrict homework.

The fact that homework could be on the legislative chopping block at all is not that much of a surprise. Homework has been a thorn in the collective sides of parents for some time now as the sheer amount of homework that children face each night has been wrecking havoc in otherwise happy households.

Kids are stressed by the volume of homework they face every night, and parents aren’t too happy about it either.

Homework amounts seem to increase in direct relation to teacher cutbacks and classroom sizes. School boards are expected to do more with fewer resources and classroom sizes are rapidly expanding giving teachers less time to teach materials during class, which means that in order to meet grade standards, more and more homework is assigned to the student. Unable to teach the curriculum in class, teachers send it home as homework. Now legislators want to eliminate homework entirely.

Something’s gotta give.

No single set amount of time for homework will work either because kids still need some measure of individualized attention. They still need to learn how to prioritize tasks, how to be organized, and how to make sense of the work that they’ve been assigned.

How do you feel about the potential homework ban?