America's Kids: School Is Way Too Easy

If your kid's favorite pastime seems to be whining to you about the rigors of school, it might be time to call his bluff. A study of questionnaires completed as part of America's largest regular student assessment finds that a huge segment of our nation's kids say school is far too simple. Some stats backing up the "too easy" refrain, per the Center for American Progress:

• 37% of 4th-graders find their math work too easy
• 29% of 8th-graders find that subject too easy as well, as do 51% of civics students and 57% of history students

• And the trend doesn't stop at middle school. In terms of civics and history, 56% and 55% of 12th-graders said the same thing, respectively; 21% said ditto about math

And some of the intel gathered on the amount of work kids do seems to back this up: Nearly a third of 8th-graders say they read less than five pages a day ... in school or as homework. A third also say they write lengthy answers on reading tests two times a year—or less. USA Today notes that a fellow at the center says that the results chip away at the "school-as-pressure-cooker" portrait of our kids presented in movies like Race to Nowhere. Click for one take on why we have too many teachers.