Training for Life

Every night Helene dreads coming home to a familiar scene. Her fourth grader sits surrounded by a mess of papers at the kitchen counter, grumpy or weepy, unable to complete her home-work and making everyone else share her misery.

DESPERATE scenes like these are taking place at kitchen tables all over America, according to authors Etta Kralovec and John Buell, and parents are increasingly fed up. The problem: too much homework.