So homework does help some kids. But it's unfair to do anything that helps some kids but not others, so it should be got rid of.
The ideal is perhaps for parents to be able to choose whether to send their kids to a school that has their kids best interests at heart, rather than 'fighting inequality' by deliberately teaching them less well.
I know as a kid, and now probably too, that I would of preferred to of stayed in school for an extra hour or two and do home work so that when I go home I didn't have any homework. For god sakes, the typical school schedule almost has a built in slot for it already. 9-5 is the typical adult work day, 9-3 is the typical school day. If we could synchronize the two and make it 9-5 for both of them, it would probably work better for both groups of people's schedules!
Adults today don't like doing their equivalent homework either. Most adults dislike bringing extra work home with them, taking phone calls outside of work hours and talk on and on about work/life balance and so on.
Also for kids who don't have environments conductive to studying at home would do better too. If they don't have a computer at home, they don't have stable, quiet environment to study in, or they're parents are clueless, they would all benefit staying at school to do their 'home work'. Often schools cannot let the kids stay for an extra amount of time, since computer labs would close down, staff often lock the school and do not have the time to supervise the kids.
My daughter is 8 and has to take the late bus home, due to our work schedules, giving her about 45 minutes of waiting around after school for the bus. At the suggestion of her teacher, she's gotten into the habit of going to the library and doing her homework there, before she even leaves. There are a few computers in the library to use and there's a teacher around to help answer questions. She does the work there, then brings it home and we check over it. It's a good balance of self-discipline and supervision, I think. In fact, giving her the freedom to initiate the "doing homework" on her own rather than having me tell her to do it when she gets home has been good for her. It's nice to see her taking responsibility of her own accord.
Homework helps some kids and hurts some other kids. And causes stress all around. The kids that it helps are exactly the ones whose families are most able to send them to private schools. The kids that it hurts are the ones whose families are least able to send them to private schools.
The ideal is perhaps for parents to be able to choose whether to send their kids to a school that has their kids best interests at heart, rather than 'fighting inequality' by deliberately teaching them less well.
You're using loaded language that shortcuts thinking.
If we TRULY have the kid's best interests at heart then it seems to me we should not assign homework in public schools (avoid hurting the kids who get no other choices), and allow private schools to assign as much as they want (so kids who would be helped can be allowed that experience). This maximizes the chance of having kids encounter the homework strategy that will be most effective for them.
That seems better to me than the current situation where half the kids encounter a homework policy that actively harms them. And have no alternatives.
> But it's unfair to do anything that helps some kids but not others, so it should be got rid of.
This is a disingenuous straw man of a summary. If it were the case that it "helps some kids" but the others felt no effect, and they kiboshed the program for that reason, you'd have a point. But the problem here is that it "helps some kids", AND HURTS OTHERS. That's a big problem. The fact that it correlates with SES makes it even worse, because it means that the ones it's hurting most are the ones least capable of defending themselves, but the basic logic would be sensible even if the help/hurt spectrum were uncorrelated.
This indicates that students from different SES should be taught differently, not that all students should be given an education that might help some statistical average, but doesn't necessarily help them personally.
If you think your kid will benefit from homework, you can still do it with him/her, without being assigned it. I am sure every text book has additional exercises you can try.
"Eliminating homework" does not mean outlawing homework and sending the police after anyone that attempts to do any homework.
So homework does help some kids. But it's unfair to do anything that helps some kids but not others, so it should be got rid of.
The ideal is perhaps for parents to be able to choose whether to send their kids to a school that has their kids best interests at heart, rather than 'fighting inequality' by deliberately teaching them less well.