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​This mom says that her 10-year-old is 'done' with homework—Here's why

What do you think of her decision?

mom homework ban protest

It’s been argued that kids today have way more homework than they ever did, and one parent is so over it.

Mom and author Bunmi Laditan says in a Facebook post that’s gone viral that her 10-year-old daughter Maya is “done” with homework.

“I just sent an email to her school letting her know she's all done. I said ‘drastically reduce’ but I was trying to be polite because she's finished,” Bunmi writes.

Bunmi says her daughter “loves learning,” is an avid reader, and writes research papers on things that interest her for fun.

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“But over the past four years I've noticed her getting more and more stressed when it comes to school—and by stressed I mean chest pains, waking up early, and dreading school in general,” she writes. “She's in school from 8:15am-4pm daily so someone please explain to me why she should have 2-3 hours of homework to do every night?”

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Bunmi says coming home from school and doing homework for most of the evening just doesn’t make sense.

“Is family time not important? Is time spent just being a child relaxing at home not important? Or should she become some kind of junior workaholic at 10 years old?” she writes.

Bunmi says she feels so strongly about this that she’s willing to start homeschooling her daughter over it if her current school doesn’t budge. “While I believe in education, I don't believe for one second that academics should consume a child's life,” she says. “I don't care if she goes to Harvard one day. I just want her to be intelligent, well-rounded, kind, inspired, charitable, spiritual and have balance in her life.”

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She ended with this: “Going forward, this is a homework-free household and I don't care who knows it. My kid needs to be a kid.” In a later comment, Bunmi adds that she doesn’t fault Maya’s teachers, who she calls “incredible.” Instead, she says “the system” is to blame.

Bunmi’s post was flooded with supportive comments from parents who have faced the same struggle. “We turn in our homework with a note saying ‘We did our best,’” one parent wrote.

Several teachers also weighed in, saying they drastically cut back or eliminated homework after noticing it was stressing their students out.

Obviously, the amount of homework kids receive depends on where they go to school, but a 2015 study published in The American Journal of Family Therapy found that students in early elementary school years are being handed significantly more homework than is recommended by education leaders—sometimes up to three times as much homework as is recommended. So, it's not surprising that that leaves kids with less time to be, well, kids.

What do you think? Should homework be banned or significantly reduced?

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