Last week, the Guardian published an article about a Canadian couple who launched and won a court case to exempt their children from completing homework ‘after successfully arguing there is no clear evidence it improves academic performance’.
The article explains that ”Sherri and Tom Milley, two lawyers from Calgary, Alberta, launched their highly unusual case after years of struggling to make their three reluctant children do school work out of the classroom.
After waging a long war with their eldest son, Jay, now 18, over his homework, they decided to do things differently with their youngest two, Spencer, 11, and Brittany, 10. And being lawyers, they decided to make it official.
It took two years to negotiate the Milleys’ Differentiated Homework Plan, which ensures their youngest two children will never have to do homework again at their current school. The two-page plan, signed by the children, parents and teachers, stipulates that “homework will not be used as a form of evaluation for the children”. In return, the pupils promise to get their work done in class, to come to school prepared, and to revise for tests. They must also read daily and practise their musical instruments at home.”
How do you feel about homework? Do all of your children complete it? What benefits does it have?
In my experience, lots of children return homework but there are always some who don’t return it and it takes lots of time to chase them up and then organise the next set of differentiated work to go home. I would love to hear your opinions in the comments below…
Image – introspection
