Class Action: 11/29/20

Class Action by Steven B. Frank is about the overabundance of homework. Sam Warren no longer has time to play jazz piano or hang out with his friends. He's slammed with hours of nightly homework and projects: like the California Missions Project. When he's given a packet of CAASP review he decides enough is enough. He refuses to do it or any more homework.

In regards to the Mission project, this book is dated. The statewide project for either fourth of fifth graders is no longer part of the California curriculum. It was phased out in 2017, the year before the book was published.

The remainder of the book covers the consequences of refusing to do any more homework. The first is a three day suspension. Then comes a class action lawsuit with a cranky neighbor (and retired lawyer) as their counsel.

I found the premise hard to swallow. It plays on the idea that all schools are uniform with how they assign homework. It puts more emphasis on the importance of CAASP. It's an assessment test, yes. Students do find out their results but these results are given out the next year. They don't affect a students grades.

And while each state sets its own curriculum, interpretation of it is done by individual school districts. Then individual schools do their own interpretation of the curriculum. Teachers too. There are too many factors at play.

This novel would have been more plausible on the scale of the individual school or the school district. At a state or national level this plot doesn't make any sense.

Three stars

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