> But when you're dealing with an entire class of pupils, you have to make sure as many of them as possible feel the same way about those tasks, or they'll fall behind.

One reason this topic is hard to talk about, I think, is that, "what is best for my kid" and "what is the best strategy for a roomful kids from various backgrounds" are often not the same thing; in fact, they can be in direct opposition to one another. Educators think about the latter, naturally, but parents think primarily about the former.