Will another Canadian city's school board ban homework? (in 2008)

As a teacher, I think this idea is wonderful. I am aware of the research on homework, I'm also aware that in my school alone, the students have eight subjects and usually one-two assessment items per term (1/4 of a school year in Australia) per subject.

However, I have also had a parent bawling me out in a parent-teacher interview, then go behind my back to the principle about how I wasn't teaching their child, primarily because I wasn't setting enough homework. Never mind that I did my damnedest to ensure the type of work that traditionally is set for homework was done during part of the lesson so the student could actually get direct feedback. *sighs*

If "homework" is defined strictly in the sense of reading the textbook, and then writing down answers based on what the textbook says, I think homework's role should be lessened. There are many creative ways to measure student progress in learning, and there are many activities that students can engage in that would make them a better person.

The problem, as I see, in the current education system, is that students are very good in acquiring the knowledge of a subject. However, very little is given to them (nor is it encouraged) for them to acquire the concepts and perspective needed to make good decisions in life.

without enough homework, how would you feed their free time? more video games? spending more money for private lessons? i don't mean excessive workload, but enough for them.

Canadian likes to make ground-breaking policy (such as same-sex marriage). I think they would allow partial ban on homework.

I vote for the move. I don't want to see my kids feeling crazy for homework, but wish they develop self-initiation to discover what they like to do. In a practical sense, the policy lightens the load on education system, and free up resource to create sensible curriculum that matches the needs of the next generation.

I doubt that banning homework would help family life, instead Kids need proactive guidance to help them grow and feel the love. Banning homework is merely an excuse for helping family life. However, I agree that excessive and meaningless homework should be cut.

As an educator, I see value in homework, but I also feel strongly that holidays should be used to give students a chance to relax and re-charge... I personally never assign any work over the holidays.

That said, to actually put that into the law forbidding homework assignments is a little over-the-top.

There are so many cities in Canada, and I am sure one of them will copy-cat the Toronto school board.

This is madness! Homework is a very important part of education.