This story sounds almost too good to be true, but it probably is.

England football captain David Beckham confessed he is befuddled by his six-year-old son Brooklyn's maths homework in an interview.

Beckham, 30, admitted to being baffled when Brooklyn recently asked for help with a school assignment and had to turn to his former Spice Girls pop star wife Victoria to help out.

"Their homework is so hard these days. I sat down with Brooklyn the other day -- and I was like, 'Victoria, maybe you should do the homework tonight'.

"I think it was maths, actually. It's done totally differently to what I was teached when I was at school, and you know, I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't do this'.

I know that in Great Britain it's "maths," but I think Prof. Henry Higgins would be appalled by "teached."

So, are American children falling behind? Are British math standards so superior nowadays that the next generation of Americans are going to be immigrating to Great Britain to work as ditch-diggers?

Not exactly.

The Mail on Sunday gave examples of some national curriculum maths questions set for seven-year-olds.

They include: "Bet went to the shop at 11:45. She came back half an hour later. What time did she come back?" and "What is 12 divided by three?"

Maybe we need to create softer soccer balls, because Beckham has some serious problems.