I don’t know about the optional homework. I just see it as the teachers giving more to the student whose families want more. It is sort of how every kid doesn’t get taught down to the lowest and slowest learner or even to the average.
My kid’s teachers do this very thoughtfully, and in conjunction with our input. Hats off to them.
Try it with your public school teachers if you aren’t already. I guarantee you ,they will work with you.
Sometimes you have to be pushy, we even put what we wanted in writing at one point. We wanted our kid to stop taking AR tests in English and do them in Spanish and nothing was happening so, I emailed Principal,VP and teacher. She was a great teacher but was just having a very understandable hard time juggling the class.
It’s worth it. Obvious there are boundaries…just don’t try to take over the whole class.