My daughter is finishing 5th grade in a NYC public school. Homework is the bane of her existence: it’s given for weekdays and weekends alike, as well as for hol

My daughter is finishing 5th grade in a NYC public school. Homework is the bane of her existence: it’s given for weekdays and weekends alike, as well as for holidays. We can’t ditch it entirely because it affects grades, and perfect grades are a requirement to advance within the school system to middle and high schools that provide something approaching an education. So we’ve developed coping strategies. Most subjects are taught using “workbooks” composed according to the state’s “common core” standards. These workbooks have class- and homework sections. There’s also an answer key, which my daughter discovered using a google search. She prints it out at home, takes it to school, and uses it to fill in homework while no one’s looking. For subjects that impose homework for which no quick fix exists, I’ve taught her to do the bare minimum needed to get by, or have simply done the work myself. I’d rather see my child read a book or go outside than sit around doing busywork. All this has led to an interesting relationship between me and my daughter: she has grown to appreciate my cheeky, playful “fuck the system”, “stick it to the man” attitude. She’s the most cynical 11 year old you’ll meet, but she also operates under the assumption that her da is always on her side. It’s important to know throughout life who your true allies are. Ask my kid, and she’ll gladly explain to you that the US public school is a preparatory form of the prison system. School practices and policies are largely punitive towards students. Admissions criteria in nicer school take attendance into account: students who are prevented by societal or physical reasons from making it to school are penalized and barred from future achievement by a heartless computer system. Likewise, any action that isn’t directly in response to a teacher’s instruction is met with disciplinary letters in the file, which further erode a student’s chances at gaining entry into schools that are more about education than compulsory warehousing of kids away from streets, where they would certainly be using/selling drugs, snatching purses, urinating all over subway stops, and painting graffiti. Fuck the government, man. It’ll never do anything right. Best we can do is cope and thumb our noses at it.