I agree. The big focus on homework in the early grades is a relatively recent development in education, and I don't think it's a positive one. Especially if the work is below what a child is capable of doing.
FWIW...
I make my child work hard, but I make him work at things that we both agree are valuable and necessary. That doesn't mean he always wants to do it--he is a kid!--but he gets why it is required of him and he values the learning that results from the work.
That, to me, is character-building.
Work tends to be either necessary or unnecessary. I have no problem with teaching my children to do work that is boring but necessary--like cleaning their rooms and studying new vocabulary words, for example. THAT builds character. But I will not require them to do work that is unnecessary. All that teaches them is that parents/teachers are illogical and that either the kids must ignore their own good sense and kow-tow to us, or they should rebel against us.
Neither is the kind of character I want to build...
