image via ristinaskybox.blogspot.com

In case you missed it French President Francois Hollande has vowed to eliminate homework for student in France as part of some sweeping education reforms he is proposing to lift France from its poor education ranking among countries in Europe.  President Hollande was quoted as follows on his desire to eliminate homework in the New York Daily News:

“An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.”  

It will be interesting to see if the elimination of homework in France happens and how it impacts student learning.  I cannot help wondering what would be lost if we eliminated homework across the board in American schools. I think Ryan Bretag’s great post, Two Questions about Homework, gets right to the heart of this issue.

 Here are the two questions Ryan asks:

1. As a whole, would “achievement” drop if homework didn’t exist?
2. As a whole, would the joy of learning, living, & schooling increase if homework didn’t exist?

While the answer to the second question seems obvious, I would encourage classroom practitioners to give number one a try and find out for themselves.