No Wonder School Grades are Declining 

While I was at the dealership this morning, I also took a moment to read some of this morning's paper and saw this tidbit:

In an effort to teach educators a lesson about the importance of summer vacation, a Whitnall High School student and his father have filed a lawsuit against the boy's math teacher that seeks to bar teachers from requiring homework over the summer.

In the lawsuit, 17-year-old Peer Larson and his father, Bruce Larson of Hales Corners, argue that school officials have no legal authority to make students do homework over the summer because the state-required 180-day school year is over.

"It is poor public policy," Bruce Larson argues in the lawsuit. "These students are still children, yet they are subjected to increasing pressure to perform to ever-higher standards in numerous theaters.

"Come summer, they need a break."

Granted I don't remember having any homework over the summer when I was in high school (which really wasn't all that long ago), but still... get over yourself. Next you'll be saying that there shouldn't be any homework even during the school year. Oh wait... they're about to start doing that in a district in Britain (hat tip to DailyPundit):

A comprehensive school in Wiltshire has just written off homework for 12 year olds deeming it, and the national curriculum, a "dinosaur".

Dr Patrick Hazlewood, head of the 1,450-strong St John's School in Marlborough, wants students to "manage their own learning" so that they learn to love learning for learning's sake.

Right... because we all remember how we went that extra mile to do even more research and homework than was assigned to us anyway. If students are going to manage their own learning, why bother with schools in the first place? What are teachers and principals for, if not to manage learning?