Lisa’s blog entry, entitled Welcome Back to Homework Hell, got me back on my soapbox, so you can thank her for this rant!
Homework is a waste of time and energy. Homework is one of those requirements that has been passed along from one generation to the next because “that’s the way we’ve always done it” despite repeated studies showing that making kids – particularly elementary-aged kids – do homework does not increase learning.
According to this Washington Post blog entry, no research has ever supported a benefit to elementary-aged children doing homework. To quote Alfie Kohn in that article,
If we’re making 12-year-olds, much less five-year-olds, do homework, it’s either because we’re misinformed about what the evidence says or because we think kids ought to have to do homework despite what the evidence says.