I respectfully disagree. The better the teacher I had growing up, the more homework. However, it was effective practice of what we learned in class and very relevant. To this day, I am grateful to my 3rd grade teacher for the amount of handwriting and multiplication table memorization she required. I mastered Geometry because I made so many mistakes on my homework early on and the teacher’s method of reviewing homework showed me where I was making the mistake and gave me the ability to correct it. I wouldn’t be as adept if I hadn’t spent time on any of this on my own at home.
Early in my career I worked with two high school students who were very bright (perfect score on SAT bright) and they were flunking a basic college math course. I asked one of the the students what happened and he told me that he got the material but he didn’t realize that he’d have to practice it. “Learning” the material is slightly different than mastering the material which should be the goal.
Quality homework also teaches people to work independently.
I disagree with the entire system: government schools, institutionalized education, large classrooms, disaffected teachers. The more I hear from parents of “successful” government school students, the more I realize they’re basically homeschooling, just in the evenings. That’s what homework is, for involved families. For uninvolved ones it’s just another way to fail.