Alfie Kohn shares more research that concludes there is no meaningful benefit to homework. And still, the homework persists, because there are plenty of people who don’t care what the research shows.

“If experience is any guide, people will respond to these results by repeating platitudes about the importance of practice, or by complaining that anyone who doesn’t think kids need homework is coddling them and failing to prepare them for the “real world” (read: the pointless tasks they’ll be forced to do after they leave school).

I would add that the meaningful benefit of assigning homework is actually quite clear: it reminds students and their families that the school has the right to follow the student home and intrude on their non-school hours. In doing so, school is indeed preparing students for the “real world,” one in which working “off the clock” or being available to one’s employer 24/7 is just part of the job.