"Anxiety, boredom, fatigue and emotional exhaustion are all side-effects of bringing schoolwork home."
Up to a point. In a new book, summarising 75 years of research into children's perspectives on homework, it concluded that: "Generally, students believe that homework is important in assisting them to do well at school."
It quoted studies from children saying they sometimes learn a lot from it. One study showed that eight per cent of primary pupils indicated they did not learn a lot from homework. This is not incredibly damning. Most pupils said they enjoyed homework at least some of the time.
Children are undoubtedly critical of poorly set and marked homework.
As the author puts it: "Pupils resented work set above or below their ability, criticised teachers who catered for the lowest common denominator and felt that good teachers individualised homework."
Good for them. But you wouldn't know that from reading the press reports.
- Smoking in front of children is a problem. Relatively few people manage to stop smoking when they have children. But many change their smoking behaviour. Or try to.
In homes where both adults smoke indoors, children have levels of nicotine in their bodies 15 times higher than children of non-smokers. A good way round the problem is for adults who smoke to go outside. And shut the doors and windows.
A good idea? Not according to a researcher from Sweden's Linkoping University.
AnnaKarin Johansson measured the nicotine levels in 366 two- and three-year-olds whose parents used the "just going outside to smoke with the doors and windows closed" method.
The result: these children had twice as much nicotine in their bodies as the children of non-smokers.
What's going on? Is it that in cold weather parents break their own rules more often than they tell the researcher?
Or could it be that Swedish doors and windows don't fit properly?
- Prison works. Well, prison might work. Or it might not. In this case, it didn't.
Flashback to May 2002. The first parent to be jailed for failing to curb her children's truancy says prison made her realise she was a parent with responsibilities.
Patricia Amos's remarks were welcomed by then education secretary Estelle Morris, who said the case had served as a "clear message" to other parents.
This month Amos was found guilty of letting her younger daughter play truant. She will be sentenced on 23 March. Which gives her time to think up a better plan than the last.
