It seems like the snowball is rolling for the anti-homework movement.
Two weeks ago I blogged about an article that says that homework is bad for school kids. My canadian friend Chris Corrigan commented how he “unschools” his kids and wrote more about it on his (excellent) blog.
Chris was then contacted by a national canadian paper and was on the front page last weekend. He wrote more about it here and here.
Chris was also contacted by the authors of the books mentioned in the original article who both have much more material on this topic at their websites, namely Alfie Kohn and Sara Bennet. Check the sites out, they’re both excellent resources!
Chris sums up the reaction to the article here:
But many people are calling and emailing about this homework ban thing, and we seem to have struck a nerve. What has been really interesting to me is that without exception, every journalist and producer that has called (and we’re talking twelve or more at this point) has started out by talking about how much they hate what homework does to their kids and families. Usually when they call they get interviewed by ME, for the first ten minutes or so, so keen am I to hear their story. It has really strengthened my confidence in our decision to unschool, although I appreciate that that isn’t for everyone.
This is excellent. Schools are one area of society in need of seeeeerious improvement, and getting rid of homework would make learning easier and more fun for kids, parents and teachers.
Go Chris!!!
Good job… I see that no homework leads to spelling mistakes… “seeeeerious”… j/k. It’s great to see that there is a push for less homework. No homework might be a bad idea, but definitely kids get way too much homework for their own good. Let’s hope by the time I have kids and they’re in school that they won’t be overworked at such a young age. I want my kids to learn how to think, not learn how to do busy work.
Some of the parents who are trying to get homework reduced in their schools have taken to printing out this little logo above and making temporary tatoos with their kids.
Now THAT’S homework worth doing!
I’ll have you know, Derek, that I did plenty of homework as a kid. Always at the last possible minut, but I did it :o)
And I agree that kids should learn, above all, to think for themselves.
Chris: Temporary tattoos – what a great idea!
I am so glad to have discovered your web-site. My husband and I have been fighting with our 10 year old son for the past 4 years about homework. It is an absolute nightmare around our house. We end up yelling at him, he ends up in tears, he says he hates school. He has come home with work given at the end of the class and he doesn’t even know how to do it. Why is it that teachers aren’t getting things taught in the classroom. If there is homework to do it shouldn’t be because it is given last minute, but rather just a few questions not quite finished during class time. Our oldest graduated last year and she had hours and hours of homework every night. I think this is terrible, and I am joining The Great Canadian Homework Ban whole heartedly. Bravo to you.
has any one got any statistics to convince me to jion the ban
I agree with the ban, children spen about 6hrs a day at school, 5 days a week, then their time at home is consumed by homework. Any other time is filled by eating and sleep, for those who have activities they have even less free time.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: We are only human, how are we supposed to cope, our brains are not there to be bombareded with such trivial matters.
Great Job!
no homework
Absolutely! Let the poor little things be free to be kids. Learning happens without teaching, all day, everyday. While we are at it, let’s ban schools too. When are they supposed to find the time to read a book that they actually enjoy or explore a topic that interests them when their time is so constricted by what the government thinks they SHOULD be doing? I can’t think of a better way to turn them off learning than by this regimented factory type approach.