Sir, – The purchase of schoolbooks is an annual controversial subject and ebooks are often suggested as a substitute to help cut costs and avoid waste.
How can a primary or secondary student look forward to learning from screen studying, devoid of the experience of smell, touch, poor colour quality and the possibility of adding a few scribbled notes on the side?
Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development, documented four stages of cognitive development.
In all of these stages, the use of the senses is paramount.
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As a former teacher and school principal, the sheer joy in a young child’s eyes just turning the pages and looking at the illustrations for explanations was a great educational support.
Carry that idea on to include the older student and the satisfaction of the tangible scrutiny of the text and its diagrams and as a teacher you witness the textbook as an invaluable pedagogical tool.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin notes ("Schoolbook scramble", August 28th) that he is "not convinced that money is the problem" for the annual outcry on the cost of schoolbooks.
He feels that “Conversations [re book costs] should be about youth development and education”. A no-brainer indeed.
If the Government is inactive on this annual recurring problem, the parents and teachers must vote with their feet at the next election!
– Yours, etc,
BRENDA MORGAN,
Howth,
Co Dublin.