Also, studying all the time as a kid (or having a night full of homework every night) leaves you with less time to develop socially and hang out with friends. I don't want my kids to just hole themselves in their room all night doing homework.
Elementary school should assign more homework. The kids actually enjoy it. Math games, story problems, reading fun stories. If they don't have homework, they actually CHOOSE to do something fun out of their workbooks. At that age, learning is fun.
Maybe it shouldn't be required or graded, but assigned and provided.
Later on, when they are more independent, I want their school work and homework to prepare them for college. Yes, this will require more of them academically.
There's always time for friends. Kids wouldn't have it any other way.
Maybe it's just the parent in me. I want my kids better prepared for college than I was, and I want them to have more and better opportunities than I had. I think hard schooling opens these doors.
The thing is, the mentality has to change. I want my kids to have homework. I want them to be required to read more. I want them trained to go to College, not the work force. When they go to College, that's when they can decide what field to go after. If we do this, the kids that don't want to go to College are no worse off.
OK, now that being said, I wish my own public high school had been far more demanding on ME to read. I didn't take the initiative myself, and when I went to College and had to read 100 pages of an anthology in 2 days, I was pretty much screwed. I just hope my kids challenge themselves in school because I don't believe the teachers are going to do it, and I'm not sure if they'll want to listen to me much as teenagers :)