A second-grade teacher in north Texas sent home a letter to parents concerning her new homework policy. Parent Samantha Gallagher went to her Facebook page to post the letter along with the status: “Brooke is loving her new teacher already!”
The letter reads:
Dear Parents
After much research this summer. I am trying something new. Homework will only consist of work that your student did not finish during the school day. There will be no formally assigned homework this year.
Research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance. Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early.
Thanks,
Mrs. Brandy Young
The letter has gone viral. The no-homework (or considerably reduced homework) movement has been going on for some time. In most cases, it runs in tandem with the reduction or elimination of standardized tests and the “teaching to the test”-type education that has been supported by both conservatives and charter-school liberals.