My daughters are in 6th and 8th grades, and I have to agree with the too much homework assertion. In our district, the rule is no more than half an hour of homework per subject per day...but that's for an average student, and even at that, with 8 periods, that leads to a possible 4 hrs of homework per day.....AFTER 7 hours spent at school.  I can see having one worksheet, to see if they are comprehending the concept that was covered...but what is the point of doing three pages of math problems in one night? If they understand it, it's too repetitious, and if they don't understand it, then it's frustrating for them to have to muddle through.

Homework is a tough balance, because too much for one student isn't enough for another. I would have been a straight-A student if I did my homework in elementary middle and high school. But I only ever bothered with assignments when I knew they would drop my grade below the B+ area. I did the bare minimum because I could. The homework for me was busy work, I could blow off every single bit of homework and still ace most of my exams... so for me there was no value added by the homework.

My feeling is that in elementary school, you should never exceed 2hrs a night unless it's for a large project. In middle school, it shouldn't go past 3hrs a night. In High School though, all bets are off. If you're going to college you need to get used to the idea of hours upon hours of work outside of class... too many of my friends weren't able to make the adjustment and did very poorly their first semesters because they couldn't handle the workload. It wasn't so much a problem for me since the work was actually worthwhile finally... it was a welcome change to have course work challenge me.

Homework should challenge, and it should teach. If a student has nothing to gain from an assignment, then they need to be given more difficult and advanced instruction/work. If it's boring busy work that takes up hours upon hours of time, then it's just going to turn the kid off from the subject.

I give my first graders one sheet of homework a night. One side is math, and the other is language. And that's usually it. I ask them to study their spelling words and read each night. I don't think it's too much. Still...half my parents have a butt load of excuses why it's not turned in and why they can't spend time reading with their kid. THEN of course its *MY* fault if their child is reading below where they need to be.

I think it depends on the grade a student is in. When my daughter was in the 7th and 8th grades she had a lot of homework. In 9th grade she didn't have as much. In 10th still not a lot of written work but more research and group work. In Elementary school it seems 4th grade is a lot of hard work. In 5th grade my son doesn't have a lot of homework but I'm told 6th grade it is going to be tough too.