I would have thought this too until the pandemic forced my wife and I to see exactly what our first grader was “learning” at the 10/10 school. It was shockingly below his abilities, hyperbolically shocking. Forcing him to do that work and then expecting him to do actually enriching work is at best unfair. We’re trying to figure out what to do next but both private and homeschooling are asking a lot :p
I noticed the same thing. COVID and at-home-Zoom schooling has been an eye opener about the curriculum for my seven year old. When I have a work break, I occasionally sit in her learning area and watch. She's so bored as they again and again go over subjects she already mastered last year. She learned how to open another window and tile them, so now she does her entire slate of homework in parallel on the side while the class re-does single-digit addition because a few kids still don't know it.
Not sure how much of this are special challenges specific to remote learning and Zoom and how much of it is just that the curriculum has to be tailored towards the slowest learners.
