Reply #66: We're so All or Nothing in this country.

[SmokingJacket]

There's nothing wrong with a little bit of homework:

-- Teaches responsibility: kids have to remember to bring books home, remember to get the work out, to make time for the work, and to bring it to school. This doesn't come naturally to most kids.

-- Reinforces work done in school. It helps to go over material on your own time in a different environment.

But more than an hour a day is too much before high school. My niece gets literally hours of homework in middle school. And as far as I can tell, there's hardly any new material in middle school at all, anyway.

Kids also need time to exercise and be alone with their imaginations.