At least in my personal experience, there are some teachers who give out busy work. I've had several teachers who expected students to write down everything they wrote on the board and made it 10% of the grade. A teacher who made high school seniors color maps with colored pencils, but didn't test on the names of the countries.
The teacher whose class I had negative points in, also gave a passing grade to students with under 50% test averages because so much of her grades went to busy work.
It sounds like you are saying we should use homework as a way to teach children about submission to arbitrary exercise of authority. All those other examples there is a clear connection between the compliance laws and the quality of life of the individual and the other people in the community. If anything, he spent time he could have used to study for subjects that he wasn't doing as well or other personal enrichment. In this case compliance to authority made him worse off.
I'm starting to realize that maybe I'm one of the few people whose parents:
Took them to the library multiple times a week and made them sit around reading books for hours while they decided which books they wanted.
Sat down with them every night while they were learning to speak and read novels to them, sliding their fingers along words as they read.
Made siblings study together exposing the younger siblings to all the material they would see in later grades.
How many of the gifted students wouldn't study enough to master the material if homework wasn't graded?
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