Canadian high school bans homework, calling it unfair

Undoubtedly many students would like to transfer to a Canadian high school where homework is banned, according to an article from parentcentral.ca:

Do students learn anything by completing 60 extra math problems at home?

Is it fair for kids from affluent families who have a computer at home – not to mention parental help – to work on assignments, while poorer kids might not have either?

Can teachers expect that children who live in shelters have a place to study?

One Ontario elementary school decided no, on all counts. So it banned homework.

"We send these projects home, and we don't know who's done them," said Jan Olson, principal at Prince of Wales Public School in Barrie, which draws students both affluent and indigent.

"And we don't know what the family life is like. We had a student, a girl who at 12 went home from school, took her siblings home and her mom was passed out on the floor.

"Her job was to make sure the younger ones didn't wake mom up. She had to feed them, she had to get them to bed, and the next day she's in detention because she didn't do her homework? That's where we are coming from with an inner-city school.

"We've got kids with a certain home life and we are making it worse by sending work home ... We have to accept the responsibility that we are perpetuating and extending the gap between the have and the have-nots."