Maryland Elementary School Nixes Homework

A Maryland elementary school has given its students every kid’s dream by abolishing homework. Students at Gaithersburg Elementary School will instead read a book of their choosing for 30 minutes each night.

Principal Stephanie Brant came on staff two years ago and immediately worked with staff to conduct a review of homework assignments, reports Fox News. Principal Brant stated:

“We really started evaluating the work that we sent students home with. We started looking, and really, it was a lot of worksheets. And the worksheets didn’t match what we were doing instructionally in the classroom. It was just: we were giving students something because we felt we had to give them something.”

Because of the review, Brant received permission from the school district to implement the radical study by only assigning reading as homework. When fifth grader Ann Urrutia was asked if she misses doing math problems at home, she stated, “we do [the math problems] in school.”

People like Luz Gomez, a parent of a third-grader at the school, are generally in agreement with the principal’s decision to get rid of homework, saying:

“When [my son] comes home, he has relaxing time. And I think kids need that relaxing time.”

In order to help with kids’ reading habits at the school, students are allowed to go to the library every day, instead of once per week like most other elementary schools, notes Newser.

So far, Principal Brant’s plan seems to be working well, as her fifth graders showed 72 percent proficiency in math and 81 percent in reading in the most recent exams. The numbers are especially noteworthy in a district where 70 percent of students don’t speak English at home and 82 percent qualify for subsidized lunches.

Do you think that abolishing homework in favor of reading will help students?

[Image from ShutterStock]