BTW—google turns up the information that the class involved is second grade. Good for Mrs. Young.
I must be the dinosaur around here because I remember what Catholic schools and home life was like in the late 1940s-early 1950s. I come down on the side of homework.
There was always homework, lots of it, even in 1st Grade. I know my multiplication tables by heart because of all the homework. There was NO acceptable excuse for not doing it or turning it in late, save death. Preferably your own.
Eating dinner as a family was a rare treat, since my dad worked in restaurants and hotels. There was no TV or cell phones. We played outside, in the streets.
We survived.