Canadian Parents Win Homework Battle
That headline might be a little misleading. The parents in question didn’t win the battle with their children over doing their daily homework. No, these parents went to court to have their children declared legally exempt from being assigned homework in the first place.
Sherri and Tom Milley are lawyers in Calgary, Alberta. After years of doing daily battle with their oldest son over his reluctance to do homework, they had had enough. When their two younger children, Spencer, 11, and Brittany, 10, began giving them similar fits over homework, the Milley’s decided to do something about it. Â
After researching studies on the benefits of homework, Sherri Milley determined that there were none.  Her research revealed that in the younger grades, no clear link between homework and school performance exists. Armed with that information, she began working with the staff at St. Brigid Elementary Junior High School to revise the homework policy. When nothing changed, she and her husband put on their lawyer hats.
After two years of negotiations, they came up with what they call a Differentiated Homework Plan. In essence, as long as their children keep their grades up, get their classwork done and practice their musical instruments and read daily, they will not be assigned homework.
As the parent of a third-grader, I am not sure what to make of this. While my own child does well in school and I am certain she learns nothing she doesn’t already know by doing homework, I still think it’s a good idea. If nothing else, it teaches her responsibility and prepares her for the higher grades, not to mention college, where more work will be done outside of the classroom. However, I know that some teachers go overboard with homework and I can see where that could place an unnecessary burden on parents and students.
How do you feel about the homework your child brings home?
Photo: apdk/Flickr
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Tags: canadian parents, differentiated homework plan, home work, homework, sandy maple, school, school work, sherri milley, students, tom milley
8 Comments
Anonimon commented on Nov 19 09 at 10:13 amIn the first grade my daughter was bringing home 1 to 2 hours of homework a night. She left the house at 7:15 to get to school by 8. They were released at 3PM, but we didn’t get home until 4PM. Homework was a nightly battle. She was exhausted after a long day and needed a break to play or veg, but instead she got more work. It was ridiculous. When do we expect children to be children when they become little robots that do nothing but school, school, school. Most adults would put up more than a little fuss if every night, as they walked out of the office, their boss handed them several hours of extra work to do compensation free. However, we have no trouble doing just that to children.
We decided that the best choice for our family was to start homeschooling our kids. They are getting a solid education and they have time to just be kids. Both are equally important.
diera commented on Nov 19 09 at 10:27 amI don’t think homework teaches children responsibility if it is so long and complex, and assigned at such a young age, that parents are pretty much forced to manage it instead of the child. If homework is intended to teach children responsibility, it should be of a nature that it can be completed without supervision and without parental input. In my short experience (kindergarten through second grade so far) that’s not how it’s handled.
And I *hate* the “it prepares them for later grades” argument. I don’t see a whole lot of merit in doing something time-consuming and without benefit in third grade just because you will have to do it in eighth grade. When it’s of benefit, start doing it then. Lots of things change as you go through school and kids seem to adapt to it perfectly well. College is going to be different in a whole host of ways from elementary school, I don’t see a big need to force one to be more like the other in this one way.
Kikiriki commented on Nov 19 09 at 10:55 amDiera - absolutely. Should we send our kids to boarding school at 5 just because they’ll eventually live at school when they go to college? Homework should reinforce what is learned in the class, and it shouldn’t be truly given out until much later. If a kid begs for homework (and some do), extra worksheets can always br supplied.
J commented on Nov 19 09 at 11:33 amI think a 15 minute assignment is ok … for elementary. Anything else is ridiculous. My son is 2 but I fully expect to be in for a homework battle because I just don’t believe it is helpful for most kids … High school is different - the work requires mroe time, but it still shouldn’t be 3-4 hours a night ..
Alison commented on Nov 19 09 at 1:37 pmI don’t think children should have homework other than light reading before they are in Junior High. Let kids be kids, they have all of Jr. & Sr. high as well as university to spend their evenings and weekends doing homework.
Amy commented on Nov 19 09 at 5:04 pmI am a parent sitting on a committee of parents, teachers, and administrators, and we are revising our district’s homework policy. What we’ve found is that parents, students, and teachers all hate homework, but administration seems to think it’s important because, well, it’s what you do. The time isn’t the problem - it’s the substance. If teachers assign homework that is meaningful and engaging (such as projects) and communicate with parents and students as to WHY the homework is being assigned, it makes a huge difference. I don’t know too many first graders who can ace their spelling and math tests with absolutely no prep work at home, though…
Ali commented on Nov 20 09 at 8:38 pmI never had homework until high school and even then it was not a lot. I did just fine in college. You are trying to justify something with no evidence that it is useful. HOmework is to help reinforce skills. If the child has already mastered it then it is just busywork and has the opposite effect - they do worse. These days homework is a way to force parents to be involved. It is useless. We also home school and there is so much less stress on my kids. They learn because they want to, even subjects they are not that good at. They dont have grades or tests. I know what they are learning by working with the as thier tutor each day.
baconsmom commented on Nov 23 09 at 12:50 pmAli said: “If the child has already mastered it then it is just busywork and has the opposite effect - they do worse.”
I got some awful grades in elementary and middle school because of just this - they gave out homework that I had already mastered, and I was bored by it, and refused to do it. Why should I sit for an hour and do spelling words or diagram sentences or do addition problems when I already know how to do it, and it will all be correct? My parents and teachers kept sending notes back and forth, and nothing happened except that I got grounded for refusing busywork. Yay.
Honestly, I think these parents did a good thing for their children, and for other children in the school district. Wish they’d been around when I was a kid.
