François Hollande has a new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week, the French president declared that work “must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we want to support the children and re-establish equality.”
Banning out-of-school assignments would put France on the cutting edge of pedagogy, though the ban would not be unprecedented. A U.S. elementary school in Maryland recently replaced homework with a standing order for 30 minutes a day of after-school reading, and a German high school is piloting a new homework ban following an earlier reform that lengthened the school day, crowding out time for activities such as sports and music.