Alfie Kohn is a respected author and advocate for children worldwide. In this book, he poses an important question for parents and teachers to evaluate. – How much do children really need to do school work at home when they have already given their day at school in lessons and learning? With no definitive studies proving the overall learning benefits of homework, parents should be advocating reclaiming their children’s and family’s lives at home. Indeed, argues Kohn persuasively, homework can be detrimental to children ‘s development by robbing families of quality evening time together and not allowing a kid time simply to be a kid. Kohn also suggests that doing forced busywork only turns kids off to school and kills intellectual and creative curiosity. The author pursues six reasons why homework is still so widely accepted despite the evidence against it, including the emphasis on competitiveness and “tougher standards” and a basic distrust of children and how they would fill their time otherwise if not doing busywork. While more case studies are needed here, this book raises an important reason that parents need to ask more challenging questions of teachers, institutions, and themselves. Great insightful book!