# 10 Reasons For Ditching Homework

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 10 Mar 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/1b9716a6-17ae-48e3-b054-b40100aed962/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Homework has been a school staple for generations. But what if it’s doing more harm than good? In this episode, Justin and Kylie unpack the research behind primary school homework—and the findings may surprise you. From zero academic benefit to increased stress at home, the evidence suggests homework might be one tradition parents and schools need to rethink. If evenings are turning into battles over worksheets and unfinished assignments, this conversation will give you the clarity (and permission) to do things differently. KEY POINTS • Research shows no link between homework and academic achievement in primary school. • Homework often assumes one-size-fits-all learning, which doesn’t match children’s individual needs. • After-school worksheets can replace crucial childhood experiences like play, family time, sleep, and movement. • Homework frequently creates conflict between parents and children, turning home into an extension of school. • It can reduce children’s natural motivation to learn, making learning feel like a chore. • Homework may widen inequality, as not all children have the same support or environment at home. • It contributes to stress and mental load for both kids and parents. • Many homework tasks are simply busywork, rewarding compliance rather than curiosity or creativity. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Homework teaches kids that learning is a chore they have to endure, rather than something they get to enjoy.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • The Homework Myth by Alfie Kohn • Happy Families Homework Letter • Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into homework in primary school ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS ✔ Prioritise unstructured play after school. ✔ Encourage reading for enjoyment, not as a timed task. ✔ Focus on family connection and conversation at the end of the day. ✔ Get kids moving their bodies outdoors. ✔ Support learning through real-life activities like cooking, building, creating, and exploring. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: On the Happy Families podcast, we love to slay sacred
[0:09] Speaker 1: cows and one of my favorites to take potshots at
[0:12] Speaker 1: is homework, particularly homework in primary school. Today in the
[0:16] Speaker 1: pod ten reasons your children don't need homework at least
[0:22] Speaker 1: in primary school, stay with us. Hello and welcome to
[0:27] Speaker 1: the Happy Families podcast, where you get real parenting solutions
[0:29] Speaker 1: every single day. This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast,
[0:32] Speaker 1: where Justin and Kylie Coulson. Kylie received the following voice
[0:35] Speaker 1: note via Happy Families dot com dot Au.
[0:39] Speaker 2: My name's Maxine and I've got a question about homework.
[0:44] Speaker 2: I am a teacher and I am a parent, and
[0:48] Speaker 2: sometimes I have difficulty articulating why I feel so strongly
[0:54] Speaker 2: about not giving homework. As a teacher, I find it
[0:58] Speaker 2: easy to advocate for children and have strong opinions about
[1:04] Speaker 2: why homework is not effective up until a certain age,
[1:07] Speaker 2: much like yours, the ones that you've talked about before. However,
[1:12] Speaker 2: when I'm in a professional capacity, I find it difficult
[1:16] Speaker 2: to articulate why homework is not beneficial to a lot
[1:22] Speaker 2: of children at a young age. And I'm talking primary school.
[1:26] Speaker 2: I wonder if you can help me to find a
[1:29] Speaker 2: way of sharing with my colleagues in a professional but
[1:33] Speaker 2: assertive way, why homework might not be what we think
[1:38] Speaker 2: it is. Thank you.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Can we help with this question? Kylie? Can we help?
[1:43] Speaker 1: I've had a lot to say about homework over the years.
[1:45] Speaker 1: I was just online hunt and twenty seventeen we posted
[1:48] Speaker 1: something called his Homework Helpful, the homework letter I send
[1:51] Speaker 1: to school each year. Just google Happy Families Doctor Justin
[1:55] Speaker 1: Coulson homework letter and you'll find it. We will link
[1:58] Speaker 1: to it in the show notes Today, Kylie, We're going
[2:00] Speaker 1: to talk about ten reasons that I think homework is
[2:02] Speaker 1: not helpful. All of them are evidence backed. But what's
[2:05] Speaker 1: your initial response when you hear the question.
[2:07] Speaker 3: I love that she's acknowledged not only is she a teacher,
[2:09] Speaker 3: she's a mum and she would go to the hill
[2:11] Speaker 3: to defend her child, but as a teacher is struggling
[2:16] Speaker 3: to be the minority voice in the room as a
[2:19] Speaker 3: really tough place to be for anyone, and homeworks seems
[2:23] Speaker 3: to be I don't understand why, but it seems to
[2:25] Speaker 3: be one of those conversation pieces in the classroom that
[2:28] Speaker 3: really gets people's heckles up.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Yeah, people love homework, parents love homework. Most teachers actually don't,
[2:35] Speaker 1: although in Maxine's case, she's right in the staff. And
[2:37] Speaker 1: there's this expectation that, well, we've always had homework, so
[2:41] Speaker 1: therefore it's institutionalized, so therefore it must work, it must matter.
[2:44] Speaker 1: Before we jump into my ten reasons, I want to
[2:46] Speaker 1: quickly highlight. First off, there's a book by Alfie Kohen,
[2:49] Speaker 1: who is a podcast favorite. Alfie Can't wrote a book
[2:52] Speaker 1: called The Homework Myth. It's exceptionally well researched. There's so
[2:56] Speaker 1: much in there. It's probably about ten twelve years old now,
[2:58] Speaker 1: maybe even more, but it's a very very strong book
[3:01] Speaker 1: in this area. There is also a parliamentary inquiry that
[3:03] Speaker 1: was conducted by the Victorian government around about I think
[3:06] Speaker 1: it was twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen something like that. They
[3:09] Speaker 1: found that homework has absolutely no benefit, none whatsoever to
[3:12] Speaker 1: children in primary school. And yet, and yet you're not
[3:16] Speaker 1: going to say the Education Department said, well, we think
[3:19] Speaker 1: that it's still worth doing. Just struggle with this.
[3:23] Speaker 3: We actually have knowledge, right, it's not speculation. We actually
[3:28] Speaker 3: have proven knowledge that this doesn't work, that this actually
[3:33] Speaker 3: is not a beneficial. If you want to do homework.
[3:37] Speaker 3: Give kids projects that bring them to life. They don't
[3:40] Speaker 3: even realize they're doing homework because they're having so much fun.
[3:44] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[3:45] Speaker 1: In other words, let them play. In other words, let
[3:47] Speaker 1: them play quickly. I should add as well, homework is
[3:50] Speaker 1: better than sitting there scrolling TikTok or Instagram reels, or
[3:55] Speaker 1: playing rogublocks or Fortnight or something like that. So I
[3:58] Speaker 1: mean there is a hierarchy. There are some stuff that's
[4:01] Speaker 1: just not good for kids, full stop, end of story.
[4:03] Speaker 1: But this is a discussion today about homework. Let's go
[4:05] Speaker 1: through it. Honey, I've got ten things. Kick me off,
[4:08] Speaker 1: let's get it going.
[4:09] Speaker 3: Number one.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Okay, there's no academic benefit decades of research, so homework
[4:12] Speaker 1: in primary school has zero correlation with academic achievement. Let
[4:15] Speaker 1: me say it again. It doesn't matter where you look,
[4:17] Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what data you pull up, you will
[4:19] Speaker 1: not find research that supports any relationship between doing homework
[4:24] Speaker 1: in primary school and your child's academic achievement. The only
[4:29] Speaker 1: evidence that we've got about homework being positively related to
[4:32] Speaker 1: academic achievement is doing a little bit of homework in
[4:35] Speaker 1: high school. But even then, the relationship between academic outcomes
[4:38] Speaker 1: and homework is small. Now, there's probably two things that
[4:42] Speaker 1: we need to talk about here. We need to talk
[4:43] Speaker 1: about tutoring, and we need to talk about reading.
[4:46] Speaker 3: Reading has been a non negotiable in our house, but
[4:49] Speaker 3: not in the way that everybody would think.
[4:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's not homework.
[4:52] Speaker 3: It's not about how many pages she reads. It's not
[4:55] Speaker 3: about how long she reads for. It's finding text that
[5:00] Speaker 3: her to light perfect and then letting her read for
[5:03] Speaker 3: as long as you want.
[5:04] Speaker 1: And you don't bribe them unless you're going to say,
[5:05] Speaker 1: once you finish, that will get your line.
[5:07] Speaker 3: She doesn't have to color in a square at the
[5:08] Speaker 3: end of it.
[5:09] Speaker 1: No, don't worry.
[5:09] Speaker 3: Just and if she doesn't want to read, then you
[5:12] Speaker 3: read to her, and you read and you read and
[5:15] Speaker 3: you read.
[5:15] Speaker 1: Yep, totally sorry.
[5:16] Speaker 3: I've got six girls.
[5:17] Speaker 2: I know.
[5:17] Speaker 1: The other thing is tutoring. So I don't have a
[5:20] Speaker 1: problem with tutoring. If you've got a child who's struggling.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Here's the thing. If you've got a child who's struggling,
[5:24] Speaker 1: doing homework will only make them struggle more because they
[5:27] Speaker 1: are already struggling, and now they're doing it on their
[5:28] Speaker 1: own rather than in a classroom where there's support. So
[5:31] Speaker 1: homework will not help a struggling student, But tutoring is different.
[5:35] Speaker 1: Why because tutoring means that you've got somebody who's died
[5:37] Speaker 1: in individual correctness process as practice, and so that's helpful.
[5:41] Speaker 3: If you think about what we're actually sharing in the classroom.
[5:45] Speaker 3: It's supposed to be a personalized program, but then homework
[5:49] Speaker 3: goes home and it's the same for twenty five, thirty
[5:52] Speaker 3: two kids, whatever. How does that become personalized.
[5:55] Speaker 1: Well, that's actually one of my ten things, and that
[5:58] Speaker 1: is that it assumes one size fits all. This is
[6:02] Speaker 1: the second thing that I want to highlight. Homework ignores
[6:04] Speaker 1: the individual characteristics and difference as educationally of each student.
[6:10] Speaker 3: We've got one child who's like flying ahead and they're
[6:12] Speaker 3: totally bored and can't understand why they have to go
[6:15] Speaker 3: through this again. And then you've got the other end
[6:17] Speaker 3: of the spectrum with a child who is struggling desperately
[6:20] Speaker 3: and none of this makes sense and they just go
[6:22] Speaker 3: home and every night gets reinforced that they're not good enough.
[6:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, whether they're slower learning, like you said, sometimes it's ability,
[6:31] Speaker 1: sometimes it's just interest, and sometimes you've got to consider
[6:34] Speaker 1: the home circumstances as well. Not every child goes home
[6:37] Speaker 1: to a supportive environment where they could sit down at
[6:38] Speaker 1: the dining table and do it. And Kyle, as you've said,
[6:42] Speaker 1: sometimes it takes one kid twenty minutes, might take another
[6:44] Speaker 1: kid two hours, which does not go well.
[6:47] Speaker 3: Number three.
[6:48] Speaker 1: The third one that I jotted down was this, I
[6:50] Speaker 1: think that it displays more important activities. So there's play,
[6:54] Speaker 1: particularly unstructured play. I'm like, that's what we want more
[6:57] Speaker 1: than anything. But there's also family time home, there's just
[7:01] Speaker 1: moving your body, there's getting enough sleep, unstructured exploration. These
[7:05] Speaker 1: are all the developmentally required, developmentally important elements of childhood
[7:09] Speaker 1: that homework sometimes replaces and crowds out, meaning that they're
[7:13] Speaker 1: not getting the social skills, the creativity, the physical health benefits.
[7:17] Speaker 1: Homework doesn't provide those benefits.
[7:19] Speaker 3: One of the skills that our children went to One
[7:22] Speaker 3: of our children brought home a biingo sheet for homework
[7:25] Speaker 3: and it was you know, do twenty skips and some
[7:29] Speaker 3: of the activities they were physically based. Can you skip
[7:32] Speaker 3: twenty times down the road? Can you take the dog
[7:35] Speaker 3: for a walk, Can you jump on the trampoline? Can
[7:37] Speaker 3: you go for a swing have a swim, like just
[7:40] Speaker 3: active things where the kids are getting out. There's no
[7:42] Speaker 3: timeframe around it. It's just getting them to move their bodies.
[7:45] Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were some stuff about going to the
[7:46] Speaker 1: shops with your parents and.
[7:47] Speaker 3: Reading a book, having cuddle time with mum and dad.
[7:50] Speaker 1: And those things aren't homework. Those are just called being
[7:52] Speaker 1: a child. But the teacher was prescribing it because those
[7:55] Speaker 1: things are going to be helpful and maybe parents might
[7:57] Speaker 1: get on board with those things. So I do like
[7:59] Speaker 1: that before. Yeah, I don't think it's good for parent
[8:02] Speaker 1: child relationships. The research does indicate that all too often
[8:06] Speaker 1: parents and children start having battles because parents become enforces
[8:10] Speaker 1: and become nags, and they become coaches, and it creates
[8:13] Speaker 1: conflict and stress and it kind of can transfer the
[8:17] Speaker 1: home into an extension of school, which is not good
[8:19] Speaker 1: for relationships. And anyone who lived through COVID will remember
[8:22] Speaker 1: that well.
[8:23] Speaker 3: And you think about it, Mom and dad, they've got
[8:26] Speaker 3: a whole lot of other things they're doing, and then
[8:27] Speaker 3: we're trying to add that to witching hour.
[8:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, let's be honest, Like, no parent needs the extra stress.
[8:33] Speaker 1: And yet parents, when you talk to teachers, they will
[8:36] Speaker 1: tell you it's the parents that are.
[8:37] Speaker 3: Actually pushing for it.
[8:38] Speaker 1: Banging and banging and banging that drama. What about homework?
[8:41] Speaker 1: Just stop it, seriously, just stop it. Number five, this
[8:44] Speaker 1: is the last one before the break. Research shows that
[8:47] Speaker 1: giving kids homework kills intrinsic motivation to learn, because when
[8:54] Speaker 1: you force children to do academic work at home when
[8:58] Speaker 1: they're often tired, and often that not in truest in.
[9:01] Speaker 1: What it does is it teaches them that learning is
[9:03] Speaker 1: a chore that they have to endure. It's not about enjoyment.
[9:06] Speaker 1: They've just got to get it done. So it will
[9:09] Speaker 1: extinguish that flame of curiosity, that love of learning. After
[9:12] Speaker 1: the break, another five reasons that homework will not help
[9:15] Speaker 1: your child in primary school. Stay with us, We're back.
[9:25] Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. Let's keep going. The next
[9:27] Speaker 1: one around homework is quite a social justice one, and
[9:30] Speaker 1: that is that it exacerbates inequality. What do I mean
[9:32] Speaker 1: by that? We've sort of touched on this earlier, Kylie.
[9:35] Speaker 1: Children from disadvantaged homes are usually going to lack the
[9:40] Speaker 1: quiet study space that they need. They're going to probably
[9:43] Speaker 1: have a lack of parental help and resources and support,
[9:46] Speaker 1: which means that giving homework if it did work, and
[9:49] Speaker 1: it doesn't. But let's take the alternate view for a second.
[9:52] Speaker 1: Imagine that there was a relationship between doing homework and
[9:54] Speaker 1: academic consequences. Homework would then become a tool that widened
[9:58] Speaker 1: the achievement gap, which is exactly the op sort of
[10:00] Speaker 1: what we're trying to do. Homework would punish kids for
[10:02] Speaker 1: circumstances that are be on their control. And even if
[10:04] Speaker 1: it's not having a relationship with academic outcomes, which it doesn't,
[10:07] Speaker 1: kids still do get punished because when they show up
[10:09] Speaker 1: at school the next day and they haven't done their homework,
[10:11] Speaker 1: the teacher gets them in trouble for not having done it.
[10:14] Speaker 1: So not a fan from that point of view. Number seven, Yeah,
[10:19] Speaker 1: we kind of touched on this, but let's just recognize
[10:23] Speaker 1: we've got higher levels of mental health challenge than ever before.
[10:26] Speaker 1: And my experience, our experience with homework has been that
[10:29] Speaker 1: it creates additional stress and anxiety for children and for parents,
[10:33] Speaker 1: like it just adds to the cognitive load. It adds
[10:36] Speaker 1: to the burden that everyone's carrying. You've got a child
[10:38] Speaker 1: who's just done six hours or more at school. Now
[10:40] Speaker 1: you're going to get them to do overtime when they
[10:42] Speaker 1: come home do an extra shift. It's burnout, Its anxiety,
[10:46] Speaker 1: the sense of being overwhelmed. There's no downtime there for
[10:49] Speaker 1: the kids. I just I don't see how it advantages them.
[10:51] Speaker 1: And the stress, the stress that it puts on to
[10:54] Speaker 1: parents who quite often double and come homes or both
[10:57] Speaker 1: parents are working dealing with so much already. The last
[11:01] Speaker 1: thing that you want to do in between loads of washing, cooking, cleaning,
[11:05] Speaker 1: changing sheets, ironing.
[11:07] Speaker 3: And getting ready for tomorrow, getting ready for.
[11:08] Speaker 1: The school uniforms and things for tomorrow, is to say, oh,
[11:11] Speaker 1: and by the way, let's have a look at your homework, like,
[11:13] Speaker 1: come on, give me a break. I just I don't
[11:15] Speaker 1: think that it's helpful at all.
[11:16] Speaker 3: What's number eight?
[11:17] Speaker 1: This is the compliance idea. So as we've already said,
[11:22] Speaker 1: the Victorian government in twenty nineteen did their parliamentary inquiry
[11:26] Speaker 1: and acknowledged they recognize that homework doesn't appear to have
[11:29] Speaker 1: any benefits for children in primary school. I mean they
[11:32] Speaker 1: literally this government would not budge on it in spite
[11:37] Speaker 1: of it, and the reason that they decided to keep
[11:39] Speaker 1: homework as an education imperative was and I'm not directly quoting,
[11:43] Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing because it teaches kids work ethic, and they're
[11:47] Speaker 1: going to have homework later in life, so they might
[11:49] Speaker 1: as well get used to it now. It doesn't teach
[11:51] Speaker 1: time management, it doesn't teach work ethic. There is no
[11:54] Speaker 1: research to support this idea at all. Responsibility if you
[11:58] Speaker 1: want your kids to be responsible and to stand time
[12:00] Speaker 1: management and work ethic. First of all, this just happens developmentally.
[12:04] Speaker 1: But secondly, it happens through age appropriate, real world tasks
[12:09] Speaker 1: and not contrived academic exercises. This is just madness.
[12:13] Speaker 3: Why are we asking our children to learn adult lessons
[12:18] Speaker 3: as five, six, seven, and eight year olds?
[12:21] Speaker 1: See you five six, and then you did six seven,
[12:23] Speaker 1: You did six seven and six seven. So there's two
[12:26] Speaker 1: more that I want to touch on just quickly. Most
[12:29] Speaker 1: primary homework is not really beneficial. It's just worksheets, it's
[12:33] Speaker 1: just learning. It's busy work. And what it does is
[12:38] Speaker 1: it rewards compliance and completion much more than rewards creativity
[12:43] Speaker 1: or critical thinking. There's no growth in homework. It's just
[12:48] Speaker 1: about following instructions. There's nothing there about intellectual curiosity. You
[12:51] Speaker 1: talked about projects before, When the kids have got a
[12:55] Speaker 1: model that they're building, or they're designing a home, or
[12:59] Speaker 1: they're well, they're coming.
[12:59] Speaker 3: Home to help mum cook dinner, or who can they help.
[13:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, all of those things will make a difference, and
[13:05] Speaker 1: homework doesn't do it. The last one, this one's actually
[13:09] Speaker 1: one for the teachers. It undermines teacher autonomy. And what
[13:13] Speaker 1: don't we mo with that? A lot of teachers are
[13:16] Speaker 1: assigning homework not because they want to or because they
[13:20] Speaker 1: believe it's valuable. They're assigning it because the school and
[13:23] Speaker 1: the department expects it of them, and parents expected of them,
[13:25] Speaker 1: which means that educators are being forced to practice and
[13:29] Speaker 1: enforce and defend policies and practices that most of them
[13:34] Speaker 1: know don't benefit children at all. So hopefully that's helpful maccine.
[13:39] Speaker 1: If I was to prescribe anything for kids after school,
[13:43] Speaker 1: the bottom of the list would be homework. Well, no,
[13:44] Speaker 1: the bottom of the list would be time on screens.
[13:46] Speaker 1: But next to that would be homework. I'd be saying,
[13:49] Speaker 1: get the kids outside, get them moving their bodies, get
[13:52] Speaker 1: them spending time with each other, get them playing, get
[13:54] Speaker 1: them being creative, give them art supplies, give them anything
[13:59] Speaker 1: resource wise that they need to be moving their bodies
[14:01] Speaker 1: or spending time with each other, or reading to a
[14:03] Speaker 1: younger sibling, dicking their head in a book. Yep, that's
[14:07] Speaker 1: the stuff that matters. And you can prescribe that as
[14:10] Speaker 1: homework if you need to, and I would imagine that
[14:12] Speaker 1: that's probably going to have a better impact on academic
[14:14] Speaker 1: outcomes and the well being of kids than anything that
[14:18] Speaker 1: you can send home on a busy sheet, Sorry, on
[14:20] Speaker 1: a worksheet. I think that's rant over. We'll link in
[14:24] Speaker 1: the show notes the homework letter. But Maxine, thanks so
[14:27] Speaker 1: much for sending the question through. If you have a
[14:29] Speaker 1: tricky question or anything you're curious about, let us know
[14:32] Speaker 1: via Happy families dot com dot you just scroll down
[14:34] Speaker 1: to the bit where it says record and start talking. Well,
[14:37] Speaker 1: you've got press a record button first and then start talking,
[14:39] Speaker 1: or send us a voice note to podcasts at Happy
[14:42] Speaker 1: families dot com dot au. Hey, tomorrow on the pod,
[14:45] Speaker 1: we're going to be getting in depth with missus Happy Families.
[14:47] Speaker 1: Kylie's been on a healthcack. You've been hearing about it
[14:49] Speaker 1: bit by bit on the podcast, and we're going to
[14:51] Speaker 1: give you an update. The first of what we hope
[14:52] Speaker 1: will be many updates as Kylie shares what's working, what's not,
[14:57] Speaker 1: and what she's learning on this big adventure called Training
[15:02] Speaker 1: for Old Age. Can't wait for that one tomorrow on
[15:07] Speaker 1: the pod. Thanks so much for listening.

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