Homework on the weekend, March Break, and Christmas holidays should be outlawed for Toronto public school pupils, say two of the board's two teen trustees.
Complaints from students about homework overload have prompted the teen trustees to ask the board to consult with students, parents, and teachers on homework reform. A report is due in the fall.
"I'm not an expert on curriculum ... but I do know for sure there's no way we can have kids doing this much homework," said Nick Kennedy, 18, student trustee for the Toronto District School Board.
"There are Grade 4s up until 11 o'clock at night," Kennedy told the Toronto Star.
Last week at a committee meeting, trustees approved a policy from student Trustee Ted Kuhn, which places a four-day long "pre-examination moratorium on major assignments and activities."
The policy aims to prevent stressed-out students writing exams from being overloaded with additional homework.
The policy will go for a final board vote at the end of June.
Most boards in Greater Toronto have guidelines that recommend homework assignments cannot exceed 10 minutes per grade every night, which means 10 minutes for students in Grade 1, 50 minutes for those in Grade 5.
However, these guidelines are not enforceable.
Frank Bruni told the Star his 11-year-old son Anthony has two hours of homework every night.
"Not a single decision in our family is made without taking his homework into consideration," said Bruni, who has addressed trustees twice on this topic.
"It's gotten to the point that we stopped making plans during the week."
But the homework policy is already facing some opposition.
Trustee Bruce David said at a committee meeting last Wednesday that he thinks students should have weekend homework.
