Asher@68 - they did its just that parents have been reluctant or scared to stand up and insist that the research beased science be applied and this whole benefit of homework myth collapsed. Teachers have children for what? 6 hours a day. Thats enough - yes some word lists and tables / numeracy sheets but no projects and long didtance stuff.

@Sir #74 - And you think you job is any harder than anyone elses job because...?

Could it be a knee-jerk reaction by the teachers association to the threat of national standards? No doubt the easiest way of maintaining a National Standard is to keep the hours of education set to provide a base. The first step is to remove homework requirements. So I don't think teachers are lazy, infact, they take better care of our kids than a great deal of parents. I hope the "no homework" thing will not apply to the good work teachers do as coaches, first aiders & mentors. The bloggers here complain way too much - Rangi.

This country is doomed. China has 300 - 400 million school aged children who attend school for nine hours a day, five days a week. This does not include time spent on homework and private maths, english and music tuition.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/13/content_871182.htm

I'm not saying that this is the way to go, as there are obviously costs involved in working children too hard as the article suggests.

However, it's not difficult to see that NZ will not be able to compete internationally with countries such as China. It seems that NZ "educators" have recognised this and given up.

We may as well just scrap all schooling and teach kids how to milk cows in the hope that uneducated peasant farming and tourism will be enough to get us through.

This is just middle class drivle that will result in a further widening of the gap between the educational haves and have nots.

Of course nice middle class parents watch the news with their kids and talk about the issues, and provide an encouraging environment where their children read, whether it's books or comics or the Sunday Star Times.

But in the poorer homes watching TV isn't the news or a decent documentary, it's imported garbage for the brain dead. And whatever reading material is available it's likely to be at the standard of the back of the Weetbix box.

Directed homework at least gives these kids something to aim at, rather than doing nothing. Half an hour of a child's time each night during the school terms is hardly depriving them of the childhoods!

I've been there, done that. I know that if I'd had to rely on stimulation from my home environment I wouldn't have achieved half as much academically as I did. And I still had loads of time to play and watch TV etc etc.

This is just another experiment by increasingly trendy teachers who'd rather pontificate about things than get down to the hard graft of teaching. In a decade's time they and their chums in the unions and the Labour Party will be asking for more taxpayer cash to address a working class underachievement problem which is largely of their making.

Yes, School time is for school work and home time is for well, not doing school work, the only good thing that I see coming out of homework is that if it's concluding a subject that they've learnt about during the day. Teachers should spend more time putting effort into in class learning than worrying about homework and the like.. I do however see some detrimental effects coming from no homework in low-income families, or the contradicting high income workaholic types as they often don't have the time or just can't be assed teaching their kids anything, shame on you. :P

I think that if kids don't have homework most of them would be spoiled because most kids don't care about it and just want to play. I think kids should have less homework because they will have more time playing on the ds.

KIDS RULE HOMEWORK SUCKS!!! and home work doesn't even help improve kids learning even scientists agree with me I even watch TV!! and I learn more stuff.so I think that teachers should TRASH THE HOMEWORK!!!!!!!.

I agree reading is better than other homework.I think if we can read comic books and novels instead of homework I'll read a lot more.

I agree