I found a way to help my middle-schooler son get homework done. It was a lot more expensive than a tutor. But it's a one-time expense. It's called a table.

Adults have grown used to working in cramped, uncomfortable quarters. They have learned to adapt to a cubicle habitat.

But kids have a long way to go before they learn to love office furniture. At this point they're not even getting paid to do the work, so something about the experience needs to be pleasant.

A comfortable, roomy place to spread out the work. A place with relative silence. An official "assigned seat'' and maybe even an assigned time.

If you research the best studying methods, experts and non-experts alike seem to agree that one important factor in getting homework done is to find the right place to do it.

It's obvious that doing homework in front of a television set is a bad idea. Yet I've allowed my son to do it; I measured the results. If he was getting his work done there, I reasoned that maybe it was just they way he functioned best.

Yeah, right. I've come to realize what a bad idea that was. But you have to offer a good alternative.

I bought my son a desk; he doesn't sit there. I led him to a seat at the dinner table, he didn't take to that well, either. No spot seemed conducive to getting science fair projects done, algebra, sociology, Spanish.

Over the holidays, we bought a large, square table for the kitchen. In moments, it became clear that I'd just accidentally purchased the Great Homework Solution. Everyone immediately gravitated to this large table to work.

As I write this now, we're all three sitting at this table working. No one is allowed to speak (within reason; I'm not Mommy Dearest).

In here, the only distraction is the refrigerator.