Reading the article, it sounds like these parents are teaching the kids to study without homework, so notes, text, doing problems on their own, that's kind of what most high schools expect. I know when I was in high school, homework checks were few and far between.
Maybe those teachers are in a school where there is little parent support or awareness and assign all that work as a way to ensure that students review topics at home. How many 13 year old kids go home and read their notes without encouragement.
The problem really is how much is enough, is it fair to make the kid who achieves understanding quickly to do the all the extra work as well, or is it fair to the kid who needs to do the all the extra work to establish clear routines to make their extra work worthless so the quicker kid doesn't get assessed for it?
University takes that away by implementing three tests a semester, you do as much as you need to to establish understanding. Junior High (and many first year university) students don't have the maturity or self-awareness to really determine what enough is.
The testing... 70-80 tests seems like a lot... some of them gotta be quizzes or short tests, another teaching tool, putting the amount of studying a kid does in one night into smaller portions, reducing cramming... maybe if they did more homework they wouldn't have to study so much though.
whatever it is, if i were these kids, I'd probably be tired of my parents getting so involved by the time i got to junior high. Imagine the crap they get from the other kids whose parents support all the homework and testing. Is it fair that they are so special?
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