Not just America and I don't blame teachers. I'm just saying you'd be right in an ideal world. But that's not how homework is used in the real world and dismissing this joke as brain dead is just as simplistic. At least where I live, homework is used to cover everything that has to be taught according to the curriculum but couldn't be taught due to staff shortages and an ever growing curriculum.

I beg to differ. While there certainly are skills that can be honed by training, homework beyond elementary school in general is useless. Either you understood the subject or you didn't. If you understood, repetition will make you what? Understand it again? And if you didn't understand the subject at school with an "expert" at hand, chances are high, you will not understand it at home on your own.