(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Too much homework is stressing out kids, eating into family time and even sparking marital spats, according to a recent University of Toronto study.

Last week, the Toronto School Board was looking at a number of options to reduce the load, including recommending homework-free holidays and a cap on daily homework. Read the full story.

We asked you for your educated opinion. Here's what you had to say.

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Amanda,
Toronto

As an elementary school teacher, I feel that putting constraints on the amount of homework given to students, especially in the younger grades, is an excellent idea. Children need time to participate in extracurricular, leisure and family activities. They should be developing real-life skills by helping out at home and learning to co-operate with others. If homework is easy enough for all students to complete quickly and without assistance, then it is mostly unnecessary, as they already understand the concepts. If it is not, then teaching is happening (or not) at home, rather than in school. This is putting undue pressure on families and resulting in frustration on the part of students…

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Alison,
Peterborough

I would like to ask: how many kids know how to cook or at least make a healthy lunch for school? Or do they know what kinds of trees exist in their neighbourhood? Do they know how to do laundry? Do they know their neighbours?

Do they have good relationships with their friends? Are they talented at music or art or even dance? Do they have an amazing imagination? Can they fix things or create things out of the materials around them?

Many people who reach university don't have these skills. Many people who go to university have spent thousands of hours in elementary and high school working late at night when they should have been getting a good night's sleep.

They spend every weekday at school, and many are exhausted by the end. Do they really need homework?

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Christine,
Brampton

I am a high school student and I believe that the amount of homework that students get is reasonable. It is needed to help develop certain skills throughout one's life. For example, it would be bad if a child discovered the effects of procrastination in high school or worse university.

Homework is also a way for students to develop their skills and the more developing you need the more homework you'll get. Not every child is the same but let's face it, some need more time and extra work than others.

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Percy,
NL

When students sit together in a classroom they are exposed to the same professional educator delivering the same curriculum under the same conditions.

When too much student work occurs in the diverse environment of their homes with a diversity of parents monitoring them (or not), things really begin to change. It is no longer a level playing field for many…Some parents are uneducated themselves, hold down two jobs, work evening shifts, are stressed from a day at their own work, etc…

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Master Payne

I have complained for years that my kids get to much home work. When I go home from work my work stays at work. Families need to have a life too…let the teachers have them for the day but their families after school…

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L. Dobrzensky

Less homework, no deadlines for assignments, no failing grades for anybody - what will it mean to students who graduate and either go on to university or enter the labour force- lack of discipline acquired by attending our bleeding heart educational system will result in a) failure at university level, b) being fired from a job. Last but not least, good jobs on all levels will go to immigrants. Most of them are much better educated than Canadian-born children.

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Nico

I'm a English teacher in South Korea. I've been here for a couple of years now, and it has made me realized just how easy our education system is in Canada. It is common to see high school students here in Korea getting home from their "extra classes" around midnight, six days a week. They then start up the next morning around 7:30am. Now, do I think that this education system is better? No, I don't. I think it has sucked the life out of most students. However, seeing how much kids can learn here at a young age has made me realize that we really underestimate our children.

Yes, they need time to have fun, but kids are so much more capable of their current workload than a lot of people would expect.

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Shane,
Winnipeg

It seems that sometimes parents forget what the end result of schooling is. I have just recently entered the work force from University and do remember my homework filled days. Public schools help children prepare for the next step which is post secondary education (this is full of homework)…

Homework, I thought was the worst thing back when I was a kid but I am happy for it, because I would not be in the place I am now without it …

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Annie

My kids call their friends and go play outside when they don't have heavy homework. Or we go biking together.

I believe the social and fitness time they have after school outweighs the benefits of any large homework assignments...they are school aged children. When they are adults in post secondary school and the work force they will have more than their fair share of stress & work...

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