The long history of parents complaining about their kids’ homework
The biggest piece of data that speaks to me against hours of homework being generally necessary for learning and academic success is homeschooling (at least secular homeschooling). Many homeschooled children, especially pre-middle school, have academic periods that last for a maximum of a couple of hours. Yet, these children are able to integrate academically back into traditional schools and excel.<p>I&#x27;m one of these kids: I was homeschooled for several grades due to my family traveling, completed my lessons in just a couple of hours per day (sometimes doing two lessons in one day so I could take the next day off). I successfully transitioned to a regular high school (with plenty of homework), did great, and went to one of the top and most difficult universities in the country where I also did quite well. Even though I had hours of homework in high school, I didn&#x27;t seem to suffer from not having spent 10 hours a day in middle school doing school plus homework. I wasn&#x27;t &quot;unprepared&quot; or otherwise unable to handle the suddenly significantly higher workload.<p>Of course, this isn&#x27;t very scientific and this also doesn&#x27;t prove that homework isn&#x27;t necessary in a traditional school, but it does suggest that something is very wrong in traditional early education if hours of daily homework are necessary on top of 8 hours of lessons to achieve similar results.