Interesting Glen. A similar story at an elementary school here in MA. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/holyoke_dogs_going_hungry_grad.html (Strange url for a school related story - let me know if it does end up going to a story about dogs). Here it's in response to a school underperforming on the standardized state metrics and includes extending the school day by 2 hours. It will be interesting to see the results of this, though wonder if it'll make a measurable difference in one year. I get the idea, and think homework for kids under the age of 11 is excessive. if they're getting more in school learning & play, that seems to be a good thing.

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Glen, that's an interesting topic you put forth and one I think every parent considers at some point. I saw the topic this morning and have spent the day thinking about it mostly because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'll just share my thoughts and what influences my decision on how we handle things in our home. I don't know that there is a right answer, just a best fit for you, your family, and your kids.

Background: So my wife and I both have masters degrees, nothing special just a check the box type thing. Schooling was something we HAD to do. We value education but we have come to see the need for developing a "love of learning" in our kids. A person who loves to read/learn (as opposed to just reading crap fiction) will never stop improving themselves. We are both coming late to this realization but that's ok. As a result, we are trying to create a culture of learning at home: reading, discussing ideas, questioning each other's ideas, tinkering with numbers. Just trying to create curiosity; a love for that so that the learning will never stop, even if it may slow at times. So that's how we approach education.

With regards to homework, I would ask what is the oportunity cost of homework? Our time each day is finite, so instead of doing homework, what would she be doing? Hopefully the answer is something that helps her developmentally; playing with things that she manipulates with her hands, imagination games, anything needing her creativity to do, learning to play an instrument, dance, riding a bike, etc., even just sitting and talking to adults or being read to from books with complex enough ideas that challenge her. If these are her activities, I'd say homework isn't as helpful. If she spends her time on tv or (hate to say this here because I know how guys can get) any kind of video game....that's probably not helping, it's hurting. That includes iPads etc.

We use a couple apps sparingly and with very limited time allowances for them. I mostly use the iPad as a way to help them learn and memorize poetry. It's amazing what a 5 year old can memorize with the right tools and encouragement, but I digress.

Homework can be important when a skill needs to be developed that requires repetition: math or memory work of some kind. Then homework can be the key to success.
So let's say some math homework does need to happen. At her age, that can be done verbally, and done in a fun way that works on the 5 old's level. It's amazing what a 5 year old will do (adding or subtracting) in his head for a small little treat. A little chochlate chip for answering addition questions 1-10 will go along way. The extra math work at this age doesn't have to be written either, in fact it's often easiest when it's verbal. Fingers and constent repetition are their best tools.

So I've written a lot. The quality of my kids is one of my highest priorities in life until they are grown and on their own.

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I think occasional homework is a good thing since then parents know what their kids know. My situation growing up was different since my parents homeschooled us through most of elementary school. My mom knew exactly what we knew and how well we knew it. She worked with us on our weaknesses and knew our strengths.

On the flip side of that, my stepson moved in the middle of 5th grade, and because he never had homework, we never realized he totally missed learning fractions. The teachers never talked to us and pointed out that he was struggling, and of course, he didn't analyze why he had bad grades. He just hated math. Finally in 6th grade because he did have occasional homework, we picked up on the knowledge gap and addressed it.

Glen, I'd agree with your assessment that parents need to be at least marginally involved with education, and homework is a decent way to do it. The teachers sure didn't pass along any information about him not understanding subject material in our circumstance. Plenty of warm, fuzzy emails from them about inclusion, bullying, safe spaces, having fun, blah blah, and nothing about legitimate academic problems but that's another forum topic...

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I'm a teacher and I am generally conflicted over this. I am strongly against the idea of homework most of the time - especially when it's given as an extra rather than continuation of class work. It's usually a case of compliance and obedience rather than learning and I'd say there is a definite gender split which is more visible in class work than homework. The main counterpoint I have is that virtually all of my highest level and most successful students self-study or do homework regularly. I'm not sure if this is the benefit of homework itself, or simply those that are motivated to do more achieve more and this becomes a self-sustaining cycle. I set homework for my students most weeks, but largely to fulfil parental expectations. When it comes to my students learning English I'd rather they flicked through their books for a minute or two between lessons and tried listening to things in the original language - both would give more tangible benefits than pages of controlled exercises.

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