ABSTRACT
As a first-year principal, I was fortunate to receive many accolades early in the school year from parents regarding our school’s performance and that of our teaching staff. Inevitably, however, all principals receive a certain number of parent calls or visits voicing various concerns or complaints. Early in the school year, the few calls of concern I did receive tended to be centered on homework. A few parents—particularly parents of students in the gifted program—called to share their frustration with the amount of time their children were spending each night completing homework assignments. Several suggested that their children were spending up to two hours nightly on school-work. Certainly, administrators want to support teachers who assign daily homework and expect it to be completed, yet oftentimes our students’ lives outside of school are as busy as our own. We all must strive for balance. The issue of homework, therefore, is something we discussed early in the school year in faculty meetings, Leadership Team meetings, and discussions with individual teachers.
