Homework is the most catastrophic innovation ever to blight Western education.

In academic terms, homework grades measure absolutely nothing.

What they measure is the suitability of a child's post-school environment for doing homework.

• Live in a small, crowded, noisy house? Lower homework grades.
  
• Your parents don't bother hassling you to do homework? Lower grades.
  
• You've got a bunch of friends who don't do their homework and want to go out and ride bikes? Lower homework grades.
• Your parents are too poorly educated to help you? Lower homework grades.
• Your low homework grades (caused by the above factors) demotivating you? Even lower grades.
  

Homework is a disaster, and serves only to make it even more difficult for poor kids to succeed in education. Time to get rid of it and allow children to play in the evenings.

seriously. make the day until 5pm if need be so parents can work and students can learn and then let kids play. I completely agree.