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The end of homework?

Research suggests the benefits of homework are minimal, and some Canadian schools are getting rid of it

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Originally published in Today's Parent May 2009

It sounds like a dream come true for most students — a school banning homework. But that’s what happened last year at Prince of Wales Public School in Barrie, Ont., where, for several years, staff had questioned whether homework was doing any good. The stories were not pretty:children who cried over homework or were so stressed they could barely sleep. Families that had to plan their schedules around after-school assignments. Often, parents would write notes explaining that their children simply couldn’t get it all done.

So teachers and administrators at Prince of Wales sat down to take a look at the research and were surprised by what they learned. “They could not find anything that demonstrated a strong positive correlation between homework and improved grades,” says principal Jan Olson. At best, it resulted in tiny improvements, he said; at worst, homework was hindering kids’ achievement.

It made them wonder: So why are we making kids do it?

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