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Teacher’s new homework policy goes viral

Posted at 4:30 PM, Aug 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-22 16:30:30-04

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas teacher’s note to parents is going viral, thanks to a student-friendly approach to homework that seems to be going over well with parents, too.

Facebook user Samantha Gallagher shared a photo of the note, which her daughter’s teacher gave students, establishing the class homework policy.

“After much research this summer, I am trying something new,” the note begins. “Homework will only consist of work that your student did not finish during the school day. There will be no formally assigned homework this year.”

Gallagher’s profile says she lives in Fort Worth, Texas. “Brooke is loving her new teacher already,” she wrote in the caption.

But that wasn’t all. The note continued:

“Research has been unable to prove that homework improves students performances. Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early.”

The note is signed by Mrs. Brandy Young.

Other parents seemed just as thrilled at the idea as Gallagher’s daughter. One wrote, “Hopefully this will change some things…. I love (our) teacher, but we do an hour of homework each night plus studying for tests and reading.”

Another parent commented, “Finally more teachers are catching on to this! Our school has been like this for years, it’s sooo much better!”

Gallagher’s post was shared on Aug. 16 and it already has nearly 60,000 shares. It was also picked up by social media site reddit, where it garnered thousands more.

The mother wrote on Facebook that people from all over the world have contacted her to tell her they saw the image. She said she received messages from countries such as Australia, Japan, Ireland and Africa.

Many on Facebook and reddit approved of the new policy, and some said their schools had similar rules.