Updated: Sat Nov. 21 2009 7:12:47 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks. At least not because kids didn't do their homework -- because there isn't any at one Ontario school.

Kids at Prince of Wales Public School in Barrie, Ont. are probably some of the happiest in the country. Not only because their school banned homework last year, but because their marks actually went up as a result.

"As a whole we found marks have started to go up, our Education Quality and Accountability Office data has improved since we started," Jan Olson, the school's principal said in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.

He says there are also fewer behavioural issues as a result of the ban, and academic improvement was observed across the entire spectrum of students: wealthy and poor, special needs and gifted.

The ban was put into place after the school looked at research on whether there was any relationship between homework and student achievement.

"We didn't find a whole lot of achievement correlation between those so we decided, 'why do we need to do it then?'" Olson said.

But before the school could start the policy, it had to duke it out with parents who grew up with the notion that homework is best for their kids, he said. Staff had to convince parents that the existing data and research suggest just the opposite -- that no homework is the best homework.

But the students don't get off scott free from their scholarly duties--- they still have to study for regular tests. But the lack of homework helps teachers monitor the progress of kids more accurately because they get daily feedback and don't have to wait to mark homework and hand it back days later.

Olson says the policy is making life easier for teachers too.

"Teachers at my school have found that when they focus on effective classroom practices, students are engaged more, students are willing to complete their work more effectively," Olson said.

And if kids do get any homework, it is assigned in relation to how it will work best with the curriculum. For example, students could be assigned to ask questions or create a dialogue with their parents.

It's "creating relationships but not encompassing the parents and family's whole life," Olson said.

Canada AM's Your Say page got one of the biggest responses ever when it asked "Should homework be banned?"

"I think banning homework is very unnecessary, it gives us kids responsibility, discipline, and much more," wrote Kenzie Pero, 12, who goes to school in Nova Scotia.

"Spend time with them, talk with them, take them to events, concerts, and museums, this will give them more valuable learning than any amount of homework ever will," wrote Darcey-Joe from Winnipeg.

In January, the Simcoe County district School Board held a meeting with two education experts from the University of Toronto, who wrote a study that found homework isn't always beneficial and can give families stress, make children tired, and can even lead to marital problems.

Last month, the Simcoe County District School Board passed new homework guidelines for every school in the area, but did not ban homework altogether.

The new policy states that teachers should avoid assigning homework that is due the next day so kids can have more time to participate in extra curricular activities. It also says homework should meet the individual needs of students, and not require access to technology that might not be available to kids.

The new policy also prevents teachers from assigning homework before holidays or March break.

Comments are now closed for this story

CAB
I could never understand why some teachers would give an excessive amount of homework and others very little. My son is in grade 4, and this is the first year that the amount of homework is reasonable. He had much more in the last four grades. Funny enough, his performance is better than ever. That tells me there is a question of performance review on the part of the teacher's ability to transmit the information and allow for adequate time to process, work at, and review. We are not the teachers, however there is greater and greater time being spent by parents teaching curriculum, and far less time being spent by teachers with the children in the classroom teaching. PERHAPS THIS IS SOMETHING THE PROVINCE SHOULD REVIEW, AND SET A CAP. I know there are some schools where there is a far too great amount of time spent out of the classroom on things like watching sporting events or other activities. Parents then never seem to have the time to do things with their children, because we feel like we have to teach the child what he should have been taught in classroom time. I know some teachers will argue they are busy with other things such as discipline issues, but I feel that perhaps if they enforced some of the various discipline and bullying policies , this might in turn alleviate this problem. I know this is a challenge due to parents who do not see their child as the bully or the problem, but it is time for schools to quit thinking about numbers of children, which translates into funding, and focus on issues. Otherwise you lose children anyway due to bullying and yes, excessive amount of homework.

Sean
Can I call this a whole lot of bull? Like in any other thing in life, you can only get better by practicing and homework is one way of practicing things. Hockey players practice to get better. Baseball players practice to get better. Pianists get better by practicing. I think that marks going up in Barrie is just a reflection on the great work of teachers. How about congratulating teachers on the work they have done to get marks up and students happy?

Phil in Owen Sound
Their marks are rising because they are being monitored and mentored in their work like grade school children. This little experiment shows just how low the bar has become for school kids AND their educators. Why not give them recess and nap time too? High school kids should be able to manage and prioritize a reasonable amount of homework, or God help them in university or professional life.

nlights31
WOW.. this is great in my opinion! Homework has always been a super stressful time in my house with a son who is high functioning autistic. Since his diagnosis when he was 10, his homework load has decreased to almost nothing, and his marks have increased dramatically over the years. At the end of grade 8, this past June, he received the award for "Most improved student" with his marks in the high 80's and 90's!!! With him not doing homework, he's able to play outside after school like kids should be doing. He can run off all his steam/frustrations. I'm all for having no homework in schools just like this school in Barrie!

island girl
I pity the grade 12 students who go to university next year. In my nursing program we have 3-4 hours of homework per night and would fall behind and fail if we didn't do it. I think everything in moderation. After a full day of school, 1-2 hours a night for those over 16 would be fine. These kids are going to find it tough in post secondary.

Dawn
Sounds like this is a win/win situation for everyone. There is a difference between homework and busy work. I think there has been a perception amongst parents and teachers that if the student is busy, then they are learning. Not so! I remember my son being so annoyed because his map colouring would determine his assignment marks. I, his mother, coloured the map and he got a good mark. He didn't learn anything except that it was okay to express his frustrations to me because his teacher would not listen. Busy work is more of the same. Homework is activity that enhances and expands the learning of the concepts being taught. Gongratuations to the forward thinking teachers and principals at Prince of Wales School, my old Alma Mater.

Karen Jenkins
What a great concept. As adults, to maintain a healthy home enviroment we are to leave work at work. I do not bring extra work home. Kids should not be any different. Why should they not be able to enjoy their evenings as well?

m@ - Kingston
Brilliant. Backward thinking rules the day.

Keith Fisher
I'm sure the kids will love it and behave like angels to "prove" the theory works, but does it really prepare them for the real working world? In the real business world, those at the top are constantly working at special projects outside the "9 to 5", into the evenings and on weekends, for which they are rewarded. The concept that "work" stops at a certain time should polarize the left wing vs right wing theorists. The intellectual pundits will have a field day with it.

Rene
About time. This is nothing new. Ask most students and they will tell you that homework is just another distraction to learning more. When I went to school we were always given homework. I found however that it did nothing to help me learn. I learned by being attentive in class, interacting with the teacher more, asking more questions. That way when test time came I either knew it or didn't. I didn't cram for an exam (did once and failed miserably) and the result was when I moved into the working world, I was better at problem solving and real life choices than those who had all the book learning but couldn't put it in practice because they forgot all of their learning right after the exam, as it was no longer of value to them. Good for Barrie and the school board.

Gary
I am a teacher. I have been following a similar policy in my own classroom for about three years. I have a better relationship with parents, students and at home with my own children because I am not so stressed chasing kids down the next day. There was always a group of students that would get homework done and there was always another group that wouldn't. The relationship I had with the students that wouldn't was often negative. It took until I had my own kids at home that I realized how little time there is in the evening, especially when they become old enough to get into their own after school activities. I decided that it was more important for a kid to be well rounded. Homework stressed many kids out, limited other activities and stopped some from just being a kid. They have the rest of their lives as adults to work all day and take it home with them too. As a kid, is that really needed?

Doubting Thomasina
It all depends on how you define homework and what kind of homework is being assigned. When my kids were in public school they used to come home with a whole package of homework each week. It was ridiculous. All kinds of "problem-solving" or "critical thinking" questions that the kids couldn't do. Parents had to be the teacher, and half of the work ended up being done by the parents. BUT the reason for this was that teachers were mad at Mike Harris and wanted to get the parents mad at him too. Yes, it led to stress, tears, frustration. Then we switched our kids to a private school that had a homework rule of 5 minutes times the grade: so a grade 6 student would expect 1/2 hour of homework each night. Usually it was 15 minutes of math practice to reinforce the concepts learned that day, and 15 minutes of reading or cursive writing practice. It wasn't a problem, and it had magnificent results: kids' grades improved and they learned responsibility, study skills and organization/time management. For young kids, homework was either handwriting/printing practice or math facts (drilling). No "critical thinking" or "problem-solving" questions--just practice skills already learned. I don't agree with the "no homework" rule. Teachers are probably inflating the marks just to prove they're right. Schools spend so much time doing social management these days that kids don't have basic skills like reading, writing, sentence and grammar skills, and arithmatic. I teach in the Post Secondary system and I know that students are lacking these basic skills AND their handwriting is dreadful. A little homework designed to practice skills already learned is very useful. Too much, obviously, is not good. It's all about the balance!

JB in Calgary
Well it is obvious that everybody who agrees with this plan have no intention of sending their kids to University or College. Yes there is an excessive amount of homework, but there is also the right amount. I personally have been giving my child homework if she doesn't have any from school, a half hour of reading or a few pages of math. She has taught herself multiplication and is one of the smartest in her class. What are your kids going to do when the get to University and don't have the discipline to sit down and get work done? Homework and the amount of work is the biggest transitional problems that kids have when they go to university; don't you think this will make it even harder? How does this teach your kids about timelines? This mentality is great if you want to breed a working class adult, one that punches the clock and has no further commitments to his job when his day is done. But it will be the kids that are disciplined and can meet deadlines that will excel in the future.

Tawny
That's every kids dream. The sad fact is that if they get used to never having any work after school, they will become overstressed in College/University. I have graduated High School, and High School wasn't very bad homework wise. Never have very much if any in my courses. But according to my friends, you won't be prepared for all the hours of work when you entered College/University which I attend to do September.Homework in Elementary school however was the worst. They give way to much and expect you to know how to do it when they don't teach it properly. *Varies from teacher/and how students behave in the classroom*However, the sad reality is, as any parent (just ask the mothers in particular) can tell you, WORK DOES NOT END WHEN YOU GET HOME. Kids have to realize that.

Alex (Edmonton)
While the amount of homework some children get is ridiculous, banning it altogether is going to have a negative long-term effect on their work ethic and time management skills and will probably harm the students' ability to be prepared for secondary school. We also have to consider what the kids will now be doing with the time they would've once spent doing homework. If it's watching TV or playing video games, their marks may be better in the short-term, but I think that too much free time will be harmful in the long-term. I'd like to see more long-term research on this, rather than just how homework affects elementary school performance in the present.

Robert in Courtice
This is truly thinking "outside the box." I think it's brilliant,providing it's re-enforced with strong results in the classroom.I know,old schoolers will hate it.But,think about it for a while then answer this question.What good does it do to park your kid infront of his/her books after they have effectively shut their brains off after a long day and expect them to re-engage with mind-numbing homework? They just sit there and stare at it,unable to concentrate.It's time to take a hard look at this concept.

j
wow

Josh in Alberta
@Phil in Owen SoundDo you take a coffee break or a smoke break at all during your work day? Or do you sit at your desk for 8 hours, with a 30 minute lunch of course, then at the end of your day take home an additional 3 hours of work to finish up, in addition to prepping for a big meeting the next day?Of course kids need a recess break, even in high school! How would you feel if your boss walked in at 4:55 every day and threw a pile of papers on your desk for you to work on that evening at home? You don't do your employer's work on your own time, why should kids do schoolwork on their own time?

Shan
As a parent of three kids in school, I think the solution is somewhere in the middle. Some kids goof off a bit in school and need the extra time at home to complete their work. A certain amount of studying and reading is also very helpful. I also think that much of learning requires repetition for some kids so practicing at home is also helpful. This is different than making kids learn on their own at home with an obsene amount of homework. But a no-homework policy? That is a little on the crazy side - many kids will suffer later in life if they are brought up in that environment.

LeoL
Define homework - in our family homework includes dealing with family issues, shopping for groceries, ski school on sunday, hockey, dialouge and social behavior with adults. going to work with dad....on and on. My 4 kids learn as much outside the school environment as they do in. Ban homework so childern have the opportunity to learn something about real world life and deal with acedemics in a controlled classroom.

Doug @ BC
I'm not sure I would support an outright ban on all homework.But surely it has to be kept to a reasonable amount.And,for the very young,it should be minimal.Not everything about raising a healthy and well adjusted child has to do with academic achievements.Play,developing hobbies,having time with friends and family is vital.I believe that those are not only vital,but add to the effectiveness of the child's time in class.Just as we have lunch programs because hungry children have difficultly in class,I suggest that children with well rounded activities likely learn better too. While not in all cases,I wonder how many poor teachers use homework as a means to cover up their own inability to teach in class.You know,"I can't teach you properly,but maybe if I give you enough homework,you can learn it on your own,or get your parents to teach you." In my perfect world,families would have more time together.Parents would have more input into their childrens educational needs than the teachers unions or the government.And ewvery child would leave school reconizing the values of both work and education,but also realize that both of those are accomplished more easily when accompanied by the ability to recreate and relax. Freedom and diversity DEMAND that families have enough input to remain individuals,and that the state,through rigid rules,can only promote compliance and a society of clones,by making everyone,do the same things,all of the time.I see no sense of "equality" in those policies.We are not all the same.We are individuals.

Ryan
Great Job!! I love this! I have always thought that the school system doles out WAY to much homework. My 7 year old has about 2 hours of homework a night, call me crazy but that seems a little excessive. Studies have shown that play time helps children develop leadership, social, problem solving, and critical thinking skills. All this homework wears my little girl down so much she just sits around after her homework is done. I hope the rest of the country follow suit. Bravo to that principal for leading the way.

Ryan
To KeithI am in the "real world" I work 60 hour weeks. School is NOTHING like work. When I started this job, I had to sit through 3 weeks of classes, and I can tell you I have never been more exhausted. But thanks for coming out!

Retired Principal
I retired over 15 years ago having been principal in schools with all grades at different times. Many years ago, I banned all homework for grades 1 - 6, and limited it for Junior High Grades to a maximum of 30 minutes per night by putting the students on the clock. Similarly, Senior High Students were expected to do no more than a timed one hour per night. All this was charted and my staffs were to monitor closely how many minutes each student was doing. While the results were not clinically researched there were many subjective measures that for me were much more significant. These included observations on student behaviour, student involvement in co- and extra- curricualr activities both in and out of school as well as levels of involvement with and interactions among students/parents/teachers.For me and those involved with me, enough said. And BTW we had many more students reporting success in and satisfaction with school as opposed to their previous experience. Finally, I still have students from my schools in the very early 1970's who contact me with their success stories. these include some who are now PhD's.

russ
Children today are facing more pressure than ever to succeed in school. Aside from having to perform in class, they must also battle homework at home. Classroom time is where children should be learning all they need to and not being sent home with mounts of homework. Lets remember these are children. Perhaps homework should be introduced in the upper grades before they make there way to highschool. We all know that highschool is loaded with homework as students are being prepared for post secondary education. While in grade school, give them a break, they will have enough homework in highschool and university.

John P
Homework is not necessary. I went through school never doing much homework at all. The only thing I would ever do would be study for tests and prepare assignments/ projects.

JTT
So no homework, no deducting marks for late assignments, no failing. Why don't we just give them all a university degree in nuclear physics or cardiology, and spare them having to go to university? We are going to end up a civilization of coddled cry-babies while the developing nations will work hard and pass us right on by.

Frustrated Parent
I have two children in Grade 6 and one in Grade 2 and I have been frustrated with homework for eight years now! For the older two, homework was a battle every single night and ate up our entire evening. Now that they are a bit more independent, our evenings are filled with the Grade 2's homework. If a child cannot complete homework assignments independently given their age and responsibility levels - homework should not be coming home. As a child, I didn't have regular homework until the higher grades and my parents didn't need to sit with me while I completed it. My Grade 2 child has more homework this year than his Grade 6 siblings! I have never contemplated beyond the dreaming stage of enrolling my children in extracurricular activities in the evenings because there is no time for them to enjoy these things. "It is a school night" means our evening is booked with homework from the time dinner is cleared off the table until it is time for jammies. Awesome family life! And are their grades benefiting? Absolutely not because if the expectations of the teachers in answering questions and solving problems cannot be understood by their university-educated mother, how can it be understood by these young children!?!?! I would like a ban on homework in the elementary grades. I agree with another poster's comments about practicing math tables, spelling words, printing or handwriting - but a weekly Grade 2 assigned poetry parent-child discussion? C'mon!

Tim Bitt
It's about time!

Finally someone in the education system realizes that "The Time Honoured" practice of cramming homework down the throats of students is not a productive use of time!

Just remember---- School is a fine thing as long as it doesn't interfere with your education!!!!

And let's be honest, your education starts when you leave school and start to deal with the real world.

Jeff
Homework is another way for the teacher to allow the parents to teach the concepts so they don't. All it is in downloading onto parents.I agree with this study. By limiting homework it forces efficiency within the classroom as children learn it when they are in it, and have an equal opportunity.

Janna Christensen
This year has been our family's best year to date in regards to school. The reason? My two older children have teachers who have a "no homework on holidays or weekends" policy and homework that does come home during the week is work that didn't get completed in class or a special assignment. This keeps homework time to a reasonable amount of time. We can enjoy a family life, extra curricular activities and we are not stressed out and anxious. I have spent 2-3 hours a night doing homework with my grade one/two/three student - he hated school and our family was miserable. He's in grade 7 now, getting A's and B's, and he is really enjoying school. His younger sister is a different student, has had less homework in general, but she too is enjoying school more and doing excellent. I do agree that homework is necessary and beneficial for preparing our kids for post secondary work however, I have experience too much of a good thing. Homework can increase as the kids get older. My kids have only one childhood and I'm glad they have time now to enjoy being a kid.

J. Sarradet
Now with so many parents both working and many children having to take a bus back and forth to work, homework is indeed a strain on the family. The day can be very long for a young child and I don't believe homework should be part of it. There are parents that just don't have the time, and some that don't have the education to help their children Parents are not tutors. It would seem that perhaps the school year is not long enough if all the material cannot be covered during school hours. The three month summer break should be eliminated or downsized to perhaps a more reasonable 2 - 3 weeks. Christmas and spring break should be for students only, and teachers should remain on the job as the rest of the population does. It is an excellent time for marking, as well as course planning. The school day itself should mean six hours of teaching time for students. Class preparation time should be from 3pm to 5pm. It is time for education to step into this century.

Ron
This is wonderful and should be encouraged country wide!Just to put it out there...I was a kid who failed grade 4 purely because I refused to do homework! Silly now I know, but I was young then. I had great marks, an A to B student, but homework not being done and homework alone is what I was failed for. I was such a good student that they jumped me a year later on to make up for it, so I went from then end of grade 7 to grade 9.Homework is not needed, does not reflect the students abilities in any way, and it does cause problems on the homefront too.It can also embarrass us parents, some of this math they do as an example is only really used in school....unless you follow a carrer that uses it you tend to forget all of that. Later on when the kid needs help with that, they need the teacher's help...not us out of date parents. Some kids have parents who were never taught any of that in the first place, how unpleasent it must be for them....when a kid needs help that they can't provide for them. Thats what schools are for afterall.

Sam C
Sean... yes, practise DOES make perfect. But homework isn't necessarily "practise," especially if the Teacher is expecting students to cover addition material on their own.As well, there's no guarantee students will actually do their homework.Cover the material in class, give them time to complete assignments in class -- where the Teacher is available to assist, explain, &/or answer any questions the students have: that's sounds to me to be a better path to student success.

Marty
What a lot of people that have already commented are not realizing is that this is about GRADE school homework- not HIGH school and the grades that are being affected. Grades 1-4 should not be doing more than 15 minutes of homework a night- and not EVERY night. I didn't at their age. Homework is only really appropriate at older grades. Children age 10 and under should not be stressed by an hour and a half of homework. I believe practice makes perfect but there is also something to be said about the quality of in class teaching. I won the math award in gr 12 (and I am not a math inclined person) with a final grade of 97% and I almost never had homework. In fact the class average was in the high 70's, if I remember correctly. It was the exceptional teaching I got from Mr L. Hudson, my math teacher. If we had more of him there would be less homework and smarter kids!

Bee
We rarely had homework when I was growing up. The only homework I remember was reading books for book reports. My daughters had a LOT of homework. But these days, it is just outrageous the amount of homework kids have. It seems kids and young adults these days in general can't even spell because they are not required to spell correctly. They seem to have gained nothing from all that homework. If my generation could learn all we needed to know in the time allotted at school, I fail to see why that can't be the case today.

jay, ottawa
Sean said "Can I call this a whole lot of bull?"You could, but that would be a silly thing to do since the research and evidence would show you're wrong.

scr_north
Interesting story. I would however, find the results this school experienced a little more believable if someone or group other than the teachers handled the review using some standardised testing methodology (and comparing against a number of similar institutions where this policy is not occuring). You really can't have a group that benefits from positive scoring be the ones that are doing the scoring. Note that I'm not saying that the results they reported aren't true and correct, just being carefully paranoid.

Christine Hunt
I know our family would benefit from a no homework policy. We have 4 kids and we spend all our time trying to get the homework done, there is no time for other activities and if one gets behind the teacher makes them feel so bad about themselves. My oldest who is 13, is so tired she can barely function from late nights trying to keep up. My kids self-esteem has plummeted, I feel like a failure as a mom, our house is so full of stress it can't even be described. I just think if homework wasn't an issue we could all just breath.

why???
So parents get up with their kids in the morning. Everybody, gets dressed has breakfast and off they go. Parents to work 9-5. Kids to school 8:30-3:30. Parents come home from work (very few bring their work home with them) Kids arrive home from school with at least 2-3 hrs of home work. Why do we abuse our kids this way. Parents can legally turn down overtime but we load our kids up with after hour work.

Mike vdB - Chatham, ON
I don't think homework is the problem....especially if it is homework that pertains to what is being learnt in the classroom. I do believe that parents that are doing their child's homework for them is doing a disservice to their children. It isn't our job as parents to go through school again....that is the job of the kids that we care for. We can guide them, but ultimately, it is their responsibility to do it. If you as a parent decide that the homework is dumb and do it for your kid, I can only hope you will be there to do you child's homework when/if they get to university and the workforce there after. And we wonder why kids have no work ethic these days...

Outside the box
Brilliant, it's nice to see outside of the box thinking. However, the grade increases might be temporary if it's due to an increase in morale (it reasons that happy students are more productive). We'll have to wait a few years to find out, ie; by then, it won't be new, it will be normal. But I like the idea, let kids be kids in the evening and on weekends but increase the challenges to them during the school day.

Jennie
How odd it is that teenagers cannot find the time to complete homework and yet have no trouble wasting a teacher's time by texting in class!There are only two problems with homework . One is that it is often assigned with a lack of application to the day's lesson and secondly, there is rarely any consequence for students who do not complete it. Homework is an opportunity for students to demonstrate responsibility for their own education. Taking away "at home responsibility" from students is only taking away their opportunity to learn how to organize and prioritize their own schedules.As a teacher it is frustrating to see how little trust we have in our kids and their ability to work hard and achieve tasks independently outside of the classroom.

GoWithTheFuture
What ever helps the students learn, then so be it. They are the future after all.

Chuck in NB
I'm my opinion, they are 30 years late....All that time wasted copying my friends homework every morning!