Usually it is the children, not the parents, who are loath to spend their evenings practising spelling and learning times tables. But a Canadian couple have just won a legal battle to exempt their offspring from homework after successfully arguing there is no clear evidence it improves academic performance.

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.

"It was a constant homework battle every night," Sherri told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "It's hard to get a weeping child to take in math problems. They are tired. They shouldn't be working a second shift."

"Why were we putting our family through that stress?" she wondered. "If we don't want it all, we shouldn't have to have it."

Two years ago, Sherri began collecting studies on homework, most of which suggest that, particularly for younger grades, there is no clear link between work at home and school performance. Working with the staff at St Brigid Elementary Junior High School, she formed a homework committee. When no firm changes resulted from the committee, the couple began negotiating the legal document that decided the matter.

"We think it's a parent's right to choose what's in our children's best interests," said Sherri. "But we're thankful the school did the right thing."

Sauce here.

I thought homework was a form of study that allowed you to improve your grades quite easier than straight quizzes and tests all semester. This isn't even American, it's Canadian, and it's not to say that these societies aren't nearly identical, but the general opinion of Canada is that they're somewhat smarter than the perception of America, but what the hell is this?

And they won? Christ.

I wish they'd adopt me!!! :P

I really do understand what the parents are saying here. There ARE some kids who do not need homework. If they can learn in class, do the work in class, and retain what they've learned, why force more work down their throats?
Now, in that same regard, if a child needs extra practice at home, that is what homework is for. There are some children, most children, who DO need to practice what they have learned. They need MORE time to practice than what is allotted at school. Thus, homework. It should be practice for those students who need it. Not punishment, and not an entire lesson's worth of work at home... just practice to help the kids retain what they have learned.

i think homework is absolutely essential.

Same, I was doing absolutely craply in school until I had regular homework in year 4, when I was 9.

As someone with a background in elementary education, I can say that homework is overrated. Kids spend too much time in school as it is, and studies have indicated that homework does NOT improve test scores. Extra practice in elementary concepts is great - but find some time to do that somewhere in your six-hour school day. Unfortunately in the US, this is difficult because of mandatory government protocol. But that's another topic entirely.

There are some kids that do need their parents to help them at home. With 25 kids, there is not always time enough in the day to help every child.

Very true. In Nevada, there are sometimes up to 45 kids per one teacher, which is why so many have to send home homework because the kids can't get any one-on-one time with their teacher.

you basically took the words out of my mouth- and i don't have elementary education background in regards to going to school for it- just 13 years of mandatory crap we all had to go thru...well i guess you shouldn't consider kindergarten because it's play time : ]

I do think younger kids get too much homework, but it's important in high school to make the kids do essays and homework or else they will be so screwed in college. I went to a college prep performing arts school and not only did we have to keep our gpa up to stay in the school, we had 8 classes' worth of work. We often had a week of afterschool rehearsals that lasted until 8pm, then go home and do about 3 hours of homework and if you didn't do your homework, you weren't allowed to perform which meant your performance grade would drop which means you might be sent back to your home school. Guess what? When we got to college we couldn't believe people could complain about the studying and work. Half of my class got their bachelor's degrees in two or three years while working full time because they were used to the hard work. I think parents complain way too much about the education system. If they don't start making their kids learn and actually WORK in school, we're going to see Idiocracy happen way faster than anyone wants to.

These parents are idiots. Seriously, if their kids had like piles of homework everyday then I could understand what the parents are trying to say. In this case, I'm pretty sure that wasn't what was happening. I don't like homework much but it really does help. It helps you understand what you just learned in class so you can understand better. Homework also helps with up coming test and quizzes. If you want to talk about banning stuff, lets ban midterms and finals and change it to a quiz everyday with a test at the end of the week. That would be more effective and put less stress on students with stuff they learned 3 months back. Plus, having test and quizzes it would actually make students have to read assigned reading and homework. I hate midterms and finals. Teachers but far too much percentage on that one test. I hate studying for stuff I learned months ago with new stuff. Test me when everything is fresh that way I will never forget it rather than teaching it and do nothing about it until 3-4 months later. No effective at all!

I am a terrible person. Up until the age of 13 I didn't do a single days homework. I wasn't pushed and I wish I had been. I am not stupid but I'm not as clever as I could be! I got good grades in all I did. I could have done better but I know I did well compared to others.I then spent another 3 years after school in 6th form and college doing courses I enjoyed and bettering myself in them.

I will however say I have a gift for music, I can sing and hand me an instrument, give me half hour and I'll be able to play it perfect! I would like to say it's something I have been taught but it is something that comes oh so naturally to me.

My theory is, I can do maths, read and write and have fair all round knowledge. It didn't do me any harm not doing homework but I would have benefitted from it more as when I did get it, it was a shock and I struggled to keep up. Thankfully, all the teachers I have had have been understanding and helped me get into a good routine.

IMO keep the homework, just lessen the amount.

"IMO keep the homework, just lessen the amount."

Exactly. While I do agree that younger children are completely overloaded with homework (I'm astonished at the amount of homework my 6 year old nephew and 8 year old niece bring in), I think that once you're in high school, it's a completely different game. I'm sure some people are gifted enough to go through calculus and chemistry without having to do homework, but without homework I (and many of my classmates) would have FAILED these subjects.

i hated homework. never did it. never got in trouble for it somehow. if i needed to revise for a test or complete an essay i would, but other than that i ignored any homework i was given.

I see absolutely no reason to have homework.
Kids are in school all day; and then have to go home and spend hours doing more work?
The amount of homework I was given, I'd come home from school, sit for maybe 45 minutes and watch tv. then spend the rest of the night doing homework before going to bed. Rinse, repeat five nights a week.

Come high school I was doing that AND holding down a part-time job.
I missed so much school just because I'd sleep through the alarm clock. And trust me, that sucker was loud.
I was just positively worn out.

When I finally got a study hall in 11th grade, it was the most amazing thing ever.
I got my homework done there, and never had to take another thing home.
My grades went up because I was able to sleep and was able to give my brain a break.

I'll never support homework, evar.

Homework is good as long as it's not just busy work, which it far too often is. Thankfully I somehow managed to almost always get my homework done while I was still at school so that always worked out nicely :)

I totally think this depends on the kid. I didn't learn much in school - lessons are noisy and full of distractions. I learnt more from doing homework - so long as the homework was well structured, and not some silly thing where you have no idea what you're supposed to be doing. But if these kids learn better at school - and if they agree to get all their work done at school, which they clearly have agreed to - then that seems fair enough. Not sure how well it will prepare them for uni though, which naturally involves lots of private study.

i also agree it does depend on the child. it also depends on the class. i'm in high school right now, and i'm taking an ap class, ap history to be exact. we NEED to do homework in there, because we have to cover 33 chapters and we go through a chapter in less than a week, and these are 32 page chapters. so i guess it just depends on the situation.

homework is shit.
it's pointless.

This is just one more example of bad parenting. Oh no, my child can't actually WORK towards something on their own, they need to be coddled and not overworked. Heaven help these children when they get to the real world and people actually EXPECT them to work hard. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and these are the people who will be our business leaders and political leaders in the future. I sure hope I'm dead before THEN! hahaha

I think there should be a healthy limit on home work. Revision and stuff - definitely.
When I was in Highschool it was a 7 hour day, followed by coming home and doing the recommended/required 3 - 4 hours of homework. And that was written in our school policies, that we would do that.

I don't even work hours that long these days. I think it's a bit over the top.

I agree with Genes as well. I see the homework kids do now and it surprises me because I can remember being that age and not having nearly as much homework! When I was younger I absolutely refused to do any homework that I was sent home with because I felt like if the teacher didn't have enough time to teach it in class then I shouldn't have to come home and work on it myself. I was especially stubborn when it came to spelling/english because I aced those subjects. Math was another issue for me and it frustrated me so much that I wouldn't even do it, to be honest, it's a miracle that I even graduated high school because I barely passed by the skin of my teeth. It wasn't that I was stupid, I just felt lazy and didn't bother trying to apply myself and felt like I shouldn't have to do it if I didn't want to. My parents never forced me and now I wish they had because I regret it so much and wish now that I would have at least tried to make an effort. At the time though I was up and ready for school by 6:30 a.m. and didn't get HOME from school until almost 4:00 p.m. and by that point I was too tired to even focus. Keep the homework? Sure. Lessen the load a bit? Of course! Homework doesn't hurt, but overload sure does.