"But if we accept, even provisionally, that homework does help--or that certain kinds of homework may help--then those benefits are likely to accrue disproportionately to the students who are already positioned for success in school... As Deborah Meier dryly observes, 'If we sat around and deliberately tried to come up with a way to further enlarge the achievement gap, we might just invent homework'" (The Homework Myth, p.127).
"In short, there are pronounced disparities in the extent to which parents are available to help, how able they are to help, and what type of help they're likely to offer" (The Homework Myth, p.128).
We've widened the achievement gap by assigning homework. For the most part, which students won't do homework? Which students don't have help at home? Which students hate school? We can't keep pointing our fingers at children and parents. If it doesn't help, why do we use it to torture students and perpetuate their hatred?
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