Ditch homework for video games: Education expert’s surprising advice for parents

Playing video games with children after school would be better than enforcing homework – that’s the surprising advice from an Australian education expert.

Ditch homework for video games

Homework is failing children – and parents would be better off playing video games with them rather than enforcing the nightly practice, according to a parenting and education coach.

Queensland-based Connor Greene said traditional homework placed stressed-out students already emotionally and physically exhausted from their modern lives under unnecessary pressure and damaged their self-esteem.

Mr Greene, who supports parents, schools, teachers and students, particularly those with ADHD and ODD, said homework was a “waste of time” and research showed it achieved no obvious benefit, particularly at primary level.

“I’ve seen it do some damage,” he said.

Queensland education and parenting coach Connor Greene. Picture: Supplied

“It prevents the kid from recharging, it prevents time between the parents and the children, which we don’t get a lot of already so we’ve already got that distant relationship there, and in some households homework is a major trigger point. You’ll have a family that is in constant emotional shock.

“I think it would be a lot better to do other recreational activities – go outside, go play a sport, sit down and watch a movie with the parents, that would be better in some instances because at least you get to share the time. If somebody was to say ‘instead of homework, I played a video game with my parents’, I’d say ‘brilliant, awesome, glad you spent time together, you got to communicate and talk. Most kids don’t know how to do that these days’.”

Education expert Adam Voigt says homework puts extra pressure on children.

It’s a view backed by education expert Adam Voigt, a former primary principal who made headlines 10 years ago when he brought in a no-homework policy at a brand new school in the Northern Territory.

Mr Voigt, who now runs Melbourne-based Real Schools, which provides educational support to teachers, parents and students in government, independent and Catholic schools all over Australia, said homework put extra pressure on kids, particularly those in primary school who were already stretched by out-of-hours care, their parents’ working needs and extra-curricular activities.

Adam Voigt says students there is “no link to future success in young people, particularly in primary schools, when they do homework”. Picture: Supplied

He said more than 50 per cent of the 310 schools that he worked with had now adopted formal or informal no-homework policies.

“If you look at the differences between schools who have homework policies versus those who don’t, the academic outcomes are basically exactly the same so there’s no link to future success in young people, particularly in primary schools, when they do homework,” he said

“People think that homework builds work ethic ... (but) there’s no link to future success in young people, particularly in primary schools, when they do homework.

Mr Voigt said research showed “three key impacts” of homework on young children – alienating them from a love of learning, particularly those who need the most support; burning out teachers, who have to set and then mark the extra work; and driving parents “crazy” and causing friction and anger in family homes.

“They (parents) end up having arguments with their kids about it,” Mr Voigt said.

“Most of the time (teachers) just find out how good the parents are at homework – and these days, honestly, that pretty much has just been replaced by ChatGPT. Nobody’s winning, they’re not getting anything out of it.”

Emeritus Professor John Hattie says homework at primary school had “zero effect” on a child’s learning. Photo: X

Australian Parents council president Jenny Branch-Allen.

University of Melbourne Emeritus Professor of Eduction John Hattie said research showed there was no benefit to enforcing homework at primary school level.

Professor Hattie said he did not advocate getting rid of homework all together as that would upset many parents who saw it as the mark of a high-achieving school.

But he said there was an argument for eliminating homework at primary school because the evidence showed it had “zero effect” on a child’s learning.

He said high school homework – which was usually revision-based – had more impact.

“Just don’t make it too long, please,” he said.

“Have a co-ordinated homework policy in high school so that kids don’t spend too much time doing stuff that they could be doing at school or should be doing in school, particularly when we have so many hours of a school day in this country.”

Professor Hattie said extra-curricular activities, such as sport or music, should be categorised as homework.

“Those are the things that keep kids going,” he said.

Jenny Branch-Allen, president of the Australian Parents Council, said she would take the debate about primary school homework to the organisation’s next boarding meeting.

“It’s certainly worth exploring because we know parents are short of time, they want quality time with their children,” she said.

“Just to make ends meet, both partners are working, it’s challenging. We’ve got to get a balance here, we’ve got to get it right.”

Got a story tip? Email [e-mail]

Originally published as Ditch homework for video games: Education expert’s surprising advice for parents