It may sound a bit stupid, I know, but last year my school decided to offer our students a referendum on having homework. There'd been a vocal minority going on and on about it for ages, and the head thought that it'd be a good chance to air the arguments properly and shut them up for good, because we didn't want the issue distracting work indefinitely. Plus, there was an inspection coming and I think he thought it would end up making him look good: he'd offer a vote no one thought he could lose, lay out the arguments, win and come out stronger.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite go to plan.
One of the deputy heads - people know he's always had his eye on the top job - thought it'd be good to come out on the 'abandon homework' side. He's one of those teachers who plays the clown role - which the kids love, even though they don't learn that much - but he's also more devious than that. Chances are he didn't think abandoning homework was actually a good thing, nor that there was any chance of winning, but it would shake things up a bit, and potentially get him closer to bringing down a weak head.
Now, there's no doubt that homework could do with reforming, now that the school wasn't actually working as well as it should for lots of the students, even though homework wasn't really the reason for that.
One of the teaching assistants had been one of the ones giving everyone a hard time about it, constantly sniping, telling kids that homework was an imposition, a total waste of their time, who were the teachers to tell them what to do... even though he'd done it as a kid, and reaped the benefits. He was so rich he didn't even need to be a TA, but kept trying different ways to wheedle his way into the school, and was using discontent about how school wasn't working for some of the less well off kids to push his own agenda, telling them that the real problem was homework, that this simple act of getting rid of homework was the solution to all their problems.
The vast majority of the staff saw that homework was - in the long run - generally a pretty good thing, and was worth sticking with. But try telling that to some of the pupils. Especially with this buffoon of a deputy now going round with the TA, announcing how incredible life would be once the tyranny of homework had been lifted. 'Think of all the things you'll be able to do with that time you've now got back!' they kept shouting.
Then there was the leader of the teaching union, who never quite said what he believed, but was nervous because lots of the people who supported his work to try to sort out the complex issues to do with the school not working equally for everyone were now siding with the TA and coming out as anti-homework.
So in the midst of all this we did our best to present the arguments, to use our professional experience to explain that not doing homework might seem like a great idea, but that to do well you had to do the work sometime, and leaving homework behind would likely mean doing worse. But this was denounced as fear-mongering; "we've had enough of experts," one actually said, and the kids just lapped this up, so each time you tried to explain something carefully, a bunch of them would just laugh and say we were just trying to scare them into sticking with homework.
The most difficult thing of it all was that there's always been some pupils who've just hated homework. They pretty much hate anything that teachers say anyway, and will take any chance to give us a bloody nose, but they just don't see why they should do homework, even though we can see the good that it's doing them. What's worried people is that this lot - the ones who have least interest in school and are most likely to jump up and celebrate no homework - are actually the ones who could be hit worst if homework goes and results suffer. But try to raise this, and you get accused of patronising them, of labelling them stupid, incapable of grasping the complex issues in play... even though the 'abandon homework' side summarily failed to explain in any detail how a post-homework school would sustain its results and help those who were most vulnerable. 'It'll just be better,' they'd say. 'We'll all be happier. It'll be amazing. Plus - think of all we'll be able to do with all that time we'll get back!'
So the whole debate descended into chaos, with neither side doing what it should have done, and people got more and more nervous. And, well, we went into the vote, and would you believe it, it came in 52% for abandoning homework, and 48% for sticking with it.
You should have seen the face of that deputy head. The fool. Never thought 'abandon' would actually win, and here he is, bloodless the next day, having to actually live with the consequences. The head quit, which was a bit pathetic, but then people turned on the deputy, and he didn't get the job either. So now we're lumped with this robot from the ranks of middle leaders, a woman who actually did believe in homework, but now bangs on incessantly about respecting democracy, insisting that there's no nuance, no going back, no chance to reconsider: no homework means no homework.
Half the students are overjoyed, while half can't believe it. It wasn't that they could even opt to do homework now - because other people had voted to get rid of it, they weren't allowed to do it. Not only that, people kept telling them to get over it, to cheer up and stop talking the school down.
Except, the longer this has gone on, the more ridiculous it has got. The TA immediately quit, saying he'd done what he came to do, and has swanned off to enjoy his big house and fat bank account, leaving a total mess. Turns out no one had done any planning for what a post-homework school would look like anyway. None. So while there's all this uncertainty, the reputation of the school is tanking. People are going elsewhere.
What's most ridiculous though is that over 85% of teachers were solidly in favour of homework, and had generally thought quite a bit about it. But now, after the vote, many of them are so terrified about losing their jobs at the next inspection that they're running around telling their classes that they now accept the vote and that they'll work tirelessly to create a successful post-homework school... even though none of them actually believe that such a thing will be as good as what we had, and could take years of poor results to even come close to achieving.
As for the students... well they enjoyed having their vote and sticking two fingers up to the teachers. And quite frankly we probably deserved it in many ways. But as things have gone on, the reality is starting to hit. The promise of this golden age where they'd get all this time back to do amazing things with faded almost immediately. Now it looks like the school day is going to have be massively extended. So while there'll technically be 'no homework,' kids will end up having to work harder for longer to get the same results.
Normally, when a head comes in and proposes some crazy policy, you eventually get a chance to move them on, because that's how democracy works. But apparently that's not an option here, because we have to 'respect democracy.' So one vote, that's it, no chance to think again, no chance to say 'wait, hold on, this might not be such a great idea...' even when all of those who came in and told people it would be wonderful have now disappeared, are doing nothing to implement this paradise they'd promised.
Gutting really. This was a wonderful school. It had its issues, and had plenty to sort out in terms of things in its history, and definitely things to work on to make the school work better for everyone, but there was a hope that it might be able to do that. Now though? It's grim. We're being led by someone who believes in homework, but won't say so, in case the union leader who probably doesn't believe in homework takes over, even though he's coming to realise that following the 'no homework' people won't win him enough support to become head, so is now a no-homework guy saying that a bit of homework is probably good.
Of course, when the leaders won't actually say what they think, the pupils hate them even more than they did before. But now no one is going to give anyone a referendum again, because no one knows what the hell to believe any more, or what way people might vote. But what can we do? Watch the school drive itself over a cliff, apparently. And smile while we do so.