You can listen to Denise Clark Pope, the founder of Stressed Out Students at Stanford University and the author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, on the podcast of Stan Goldberg at srdad.com. Part 2 of the podcast will be next week so be sure to check back to hear the second half of the interview.
In addition to reading Doing School, I spent several hours on the phone with Denise when I was doing research for The Case Against Homework and it was really great to hear her interview with Stan. Denise is very articulate about what’s the matter with schools these days and I always wish that more parents would familiarize themselves with her work and her ideas. I think she could single-handedly quell much of the competition that exists among parents and schools, if only everyone knew about her and her program.
Stop Homework 
Your FAQ states
Many countries with the highest scoring students on achievement tests, suchas Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, have teachers who assign little homework.
I can only speak to the Japanese case. My son is a second grade student in a very ordinary Japanese public school. He gets a fair amount of homework, perhaps on the order of 30 minutes or so per day. I see no evidence that he is being bent out of shape by this.
I would also note that the large fraction of Japanese students who receive supplementary tuition from private tutors or who attend after hours and weekend supplementary programs are in effect “doing homework.” Indeed, one reason for teachers not assigning as much homework as they might is because they assume a large fraction of the class will be receiving supplementary instruction.
Earl H. Kinmonth
Professor of Sociology (Education)
Taisho University
Tokyo, Japan
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Hello,
I am “trying” to put together a plan to limit homework in my childrens school. I need advice and I would love to be able to speak with someone who has gone through this battle and possibly get a guest speaker to come to the school. If you can help please let me know.
Thank you
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