By Samantha Fex
The life of a typical high school student involves a lot of stress these days. Grade 9 students struggle to adapt to the transition into high school, as Grade 12 students strive for high grades to apply to post-secondary institutions.
Extra homework, just days before exams, can really intensify this stressful environment, but one Toronto student trustee is trying to relieve some of that pressure.
Last month, Toronto District School Board’s student trustee, Ted Kuhn, launched a proposal that would ban homework within the five-day period before high school exams. The ban would allow for review and ongoing assignments, but no new homework introduced. The board’s program committee said it will collect student and staff feedback before passing the proposal to the board for a decision.
However, student trustees on Ottawa’s public school board say they will not follow Kuhn’s proposal.
“We think that it’s not the board’s place to implement something like that, it should be the teacher who decides,” says Oliver Khan, one of two student trustees on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
“It’s much more based on the student teacher relationship than something the board should do. We are definitely not going to bring it up.”
Judith Robertson, an education professor at the University of Ottawa, also thinks the OCDSB should not interfere with a teacher’s work.
“I am a strong believer in the capacities of teachers as caring intellectuals and professionals to make decisions that honour the learning needs and capacities of students,” says Robertson.
Robertson says homework before exams has proven to be successful in her 30 years of teaching at public schools and at the university.
“I can think of many times . . . when an assigned homework reading in advance of the exam was given expressly to assist students with mental activities . . . that would be called upon in the exam,” says Robertson.
Sharon Cook, another education professor at the University of Ottawa, says this issue is not merely at the student teacher level and it would be appropriate for a central authority like a board or a principal to decide.
Cook says this type of ban is common with numerous high schools she taught at in the past. She says she does not understand why there would be homework right before exams anyway.
“The point of homework is for students to have a chance to practice skills that have been introduced in the class. Just a couple of days before exams, they shouldn’t be practicing,” says Cook. “They should have already had that under control.”
Many high school students at Lisgar Collegiate Institute say they would welcome the ban.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” says Petra Smith, a Grade 10 student at Lisgar. “It’s really busy five days before exams and I think the curriculum should actually end a bit sooner so that kids have more time to review.”
Helena Towle, another Lisgar student, says the ban would reduce stress for students who are in the midst of applying to post-secondary institutions.
“I think it’s stressful enough,” says Towle. “I am in Grade 12 myself, and I have already been accepted, luckily, to university, but the majority of my grade hasn’t. So the fact that we have to worry about exams on top of other assignments isn’t exactly the best thing in the world.”
Nevertheless, Khan says they will not suggest a homework ban even if the Toronto student trustee’s proposal does pass – an unlikely option, he feels.
“I can see how students would really like it,” says Khan, laughing. “But, I don’t think it’s something that’s going to pass.”