Wootton Principal Bans Homework for Upcoming Weekend

When Sam Doran, son of principal Dr. Michael Doran, needed to complete his college applications as a senior, Doran and his wife had a simple plan: lock him in his room.

“She had the idea,” Doran said. “She told me, ‘When he comes home next weekend, when he comes in on Friday, I’ve got all the stuff in his room. We’re going to put him in his room and we’re going to lock him up. And he’s not going to come out until he’s finished.'”

Doran admits it wasn’t as harsh a situation as his wife portrayed. But sure enough, at about 8 p.m. that Sunday, the Wootton administrator’s son came downstairs and announced he was done.

Now, Doran is affording his students the same opportunity.

"When I got here after a couple of years, I was seeing that these kids were struggling, so I said why don’t we try to get our kids to do what Sam did," Doran said. “In a weekend, let’s see how much they can knock out. Help them, support them, give them what they need and just see.”

For the third straight school year, Doran has declared a homework-free weekend for all students, allowing seniors to work on their college applications and essays and the rest of the school to do college testing prep and student service learning hours.

The program, which starts Friday, consists of the following activities:

• On Friday, the school will offer help to all seniors from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• On Saturday, the school will host three workshops for students: From 10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., students can learn how to prepare for college interviews. From 9 a.m. to noon, students can work on their applications and seek essay assistance in separate workshops.

During the 2010 event, Doran estimates about 160 total students participated in the workshops, a number he’s very pleased with, despite a nearly 600-person senior class.

To run the event, Doran has four to five teachers and about 40 parents volunteer to work with the students. English teacher Jennifer Martin has stepped up the last two years to help the principal run the event.

The one-on-one time is a great way to help reduce the seniors’ stress level, Martin said. The opportunity to help not only the senior class, which Martin said is always her favorite, but also to assist parents is something she looks forward to.

“Up in the classroom, I don’t see parents very much,” she said. “They don't bother me a whole lot and they don’t need me much, it seems. So [this workshop] was a way for me to get more involved in the community.”

With all the potential for positives, Doran said a few teachers have been concerned that some students won't participate in any of the suggested activities. These teachers still want to issue homework, regardless of the promise of a weekend off.

Doran acknowledged that the concerns of his staff were valid but argued that the opportunity is too great for those who choose to participate.

“Some of the teachers who want to be giving homework have been saying, ‘well what if 30 of my 60 kids just blow it off?’ Doran said. “What we’re saying is that for the 30 who did [participate], it’s still worth it.”

Doran also said that he believes the kids who choose not to participate will still benefit from a stress-free weekend in the beginning of the school year.

Count Wootton math teacher Keith Burnham as among those who think some students—particularly young students—shouldn’t be given the weekend off.

“I would think this would be like anything else as a privilege,” Burnham said. “As you move up in the high school, get closer to college, there are things we need to put into place to help you succeed and get these applications up.”

Despite some resistance, Doran said he firmly believes all teachers will abstain from assigning homework this weekend, adding that the amount of homework students complete during the school year should be a topic for debate.

The Wootton and clusters have already held some discussion, Doran said. Churchill, , and will all, like Wootton, declare homework-free weekends at some point this school year.

“It’s not just a Wootton issue,” Doran said. “We talked as a cluster that has a lot of the same interests, a lot of the same things going on in our communities, and that we do understand what the parent’s issues [with homework quantities] are.”