That state capitals math assignment will come in handy one day, when the internet is broken, all the libraries are burned down, and knowing the capital of New Hampshire is the difference between life and death.

Or not.

You don't have to wait until middle school for this sort of thing, though. My DD was 6 when she played on a soccer team full of kids from a particular religious private school, and a common conversation was the hours of homework their kids were doing. These little ones were typically getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night. This was creating battles to do the homework and get through it, then get up the next morning.

I wondered aloud why they paid people to do this to their children. Nobody had a good answer.