Sir, – Further to “Can parents opt their children out of doing homework?” (Health + Family, September 27th), a few years ago, to my surprise, a teacher friend remarked that the old ways of “chalk, talk and individualised learning” were long gone.
The modern scholastic emphasis apparently is on teamwork, collaboration, and group learning.
This suits extroverts (who are energised, not depleted, by physical proximity and chatter). Both at school and at work, introverts, who work best alone, are ignored, at best.
Frequently, their innate approach is seen as a character defect which needs to be corrected.
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The unexamined assumption underpinning calls to ban homework is that group learning works best for everybody. Hence, homework is “not needed”.
However, people work in different ways, and there is a risk that the dominant extroversion culture inadvertently is disadvantageous for those students who are more productive when they work independently. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN MacCANN,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.