Well, I was being a little hyperbolic, but the point is that it is all about getting kids/students to learn for themselves on how to teach themselves. Rote repetition is all about spitting out artificial answers to artificial problems as opposed to learning how to attack a problem in a meaningful way.
Given, a little repetition is necessary, but that has less to do with homework and more to do with the learner spending time examining and re-examining a problem until they understand that this is ultimately a simple problem that have methodologies have been developed to solve, not one that has answers.
You can let kids be intimidated by decimals and fractions or you let them learn it by letting them split up dinner and count out coins on a daily basis when you go shopping. Most people just let the industrialized learning take place instead of turning everything into a learning experience.
LOL at thinking they can't. In fact, it disturbs me that you think that they can't. Everything that a six year old sees should be a reading adventure, from store signs to restaurant menus.