Homework

Today I was thinking back to my field experience and I noticed, after observing several teachers, that none of them gave their students homework.  Thinking back to my high school experience, I had homework every night, except for Fridays.  I asked one teacher why and she said that even her honors English students didn't do the homework that she assigned.  So, this leaves me wondering what is the best way to handle the homework issue.  Should I just do what they did and not give them any or is it important to assign homework?