Astoria New York Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. is calling for a halt to excessive homework as he feels children could be learning new skills, exercising, or spending time with families.

Penn State and the Blue Ridge High School and it District in Illinois are currently doing a study to find out if they need to cut back on homework. "If we are assigning homework and it has no educational value to students, then there is no point in assigning homework, says Superintendent Jay Harnack."

First grade teacher Kathy Silvers says, "If I want my average child in my classroom to be able compete globally when they are an adult, I have to help them excel now." She also feels that homework will let mom and dad share in what is going on in school.

Whether you believe children should have to do a lot of homework, a little homework, or none at all, you have to agree that it is a big issue in many homes. Teachers assign it to reinforce what is taught in class. Most parents deal with it because they want their kid to get good grades. Student mumble and whine their way thought it.

Since the dawn of no-child-left-behind, the homework dilemma has gotten worse. As more class time is being spent teaching for the test, less class time is available to teach concepts and practice what it learned. The only option many teachers have is to assign all practice work to be done at home. If it were not bad enough that school kids no longer enjoy enrichment classes like art, drama, music, and sports, the glut of homework is eating up the time they would have to do those activities after school.

Not only does too much homework cut into extracurricular time for school children, but it also causes them undue stress. If the average fourth grader gets home from school at 3:30 and works on homework until 7:30, than that child has no time to unwind from the stresses of the school day. This stress will only compound the next day and the next.

Then there is the question of whether or not parents should help children with their homework. Some parents barely look, while other parent's micro manage homework and even take over larger projects. Some feel that helping would cripple the child; others feel that helping will give the child a leg up in school.

Is there any answer to all of these homework issues? Hopefully more studies like the Penn State study will be done to evaluate at what point homework stops being valuable and begins being too stressful for children. Hopefully at some point, schools will find a way to teach kids everything they need to know and leave the fluff behind. Hopefully, everyone will agree on what the proper amount of homework is.

As for my kids, and me this is not an issue. They go to "school" (for homeschoolers) 2 days a week, and do homework three days a week... they have 15-18 hours of homework a week, but they only have 12 hours of classroom time a week. While I have nothing against homework, I think it is unfair to ask a child to put in a seven-hour day, and then do three more hours of homework. I know few adults who would do that for their jobs.