I wonder how much homework per night Denise Clark Pope did, and still does, to become a senior lecturer at Stanford?

@Observer
What a silly comment. Children have different needs for healthy development than adults. Perhaps you should take some time and learn of Mrs. Pope's work. She's extensively published.

I love it when people feel like it is their job to simply be critical of others. Didn't you ever learn if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?

Finland has the finest education system on Earth. No homework at all there.

@Whatever

You're like the pot calling the kettle black.

Why not post a comment related to the article and leave my comment alone?

@Observer
What!? You can't handle a little criticism? That's funny.

@Whatever

What I can't handle is hypocrisy.

When my son comes home from his high school at around 5 ( after playing a sport), and he is up until about 11:00 doing homework non-stop, taking a break only for dinner, I get concerned that he is missing something. When his weekend is spent worrying the entire time about the hours and hours of work he has before Monday, he is stressed. I think Pope is onto something.

I couldn't agree more about too much homework. When my daughter was in Kindergarten she had homework to do and by third grade she was spending 3 hours a night. Now that she is a senior in high school I find there is little free time for her to just be a teen and have fun with friends. But she has learned to hate school and it has been a real struggle to get her to finish. I somehow doubt homework is really helping the kids to learn the material and be able to apply it to life if the standardized test scores are anything to judge by.

My daughter is in 7th grade and is an A+ student. I am proud of her, but the other half of me worries about too much homework and the time she spends on it. She doesn't come out of her room until 8pm or 9pm. It's great to be learning, but it is also great to live your life. There needs to be a balance, whatever that may be.

I take her traveling and we learn about the places we go. Real life experience really great too. It stays with you and you don't feel like you had to work hard to learn it. We must have hit 8 California missions in 5th grade.

Rather than continuing to promote a position with which most agree, I'd like to see Pope use her position to come up with solutions...many of which lie at the college level.

Kids are free to take classes with less homework. Unfortunately those courses don't impress the colleges. An alternative is to take the tougher courses (curriculum defined nationally by the AP folks). However, not putting in the outside time, and performing poorly in those courses also does not impress colleges (although a "B" would often be fine).

Much of the problem is driven by what colleges are demanding, and what kids (and their parents) are doing to impress the colleges. Why doesn't Pope work with colleges to get them to cap the number of advanced courses they'll consider in admissions? Why doesn't Pope work with the State to expand the number of UC opportunities for in-State kids? (Right now it takes a GPA over 4.0 to get into many of the UC's).

If expectation levels are reduced...either by colleges or by students/parents, then the workloads would more easily go down. Come up with solutions for problem...then I'll be impressed. Just stating over and over that too much homework isn't good...that's hardly novel PhD level work.