The school year has already, or is about to start, for a lot of kids around the country. This means many of them will be dreading coming home each night with homework. But in one Florida locale, that won’t be an issue anymore - at least for elementary school kids.
Ocala’s Marion County Public Schools has implemented a “no homework policy” for their 31 elementary schools, with the Schools Superintendent Heidi Maier explaining, "It’s no traditional homework, no work sheets, no endless pages of workbooks. Instead our children are reading aloud with their parents at least 20 minutes a night.”
The school decided on their policy after studies showed that homework doesn’t necessarily benefit students, although some say it does help teach kids things like organization, responsibility and time management.
- Needless to say not everyone is on board with the new policy, and some parents aren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of their kids not having homework. One parent said she was “stunned” by the board’s decision, while mom Lauren Roger, who said homework for her two sons was a “struggle” is behind the idea. She tells "Today," “For us, it was like a happy dance here in the kitchen.”
Source: Today