In January he posted an email on the IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) listserve asking for useful arguments against homework that he could use to persuade his colleagues that it was unnecessary. His own view was that all the homework he had seen set was "boring, repetitive, unrelated to class work, a pain in the arse to mark, closed-ended, angst-causing and generally a waste of time that could have been valuably spent in other ways such as creative pursuits, chilling out, being with friends, being with family, playing, dreaming etc ." This is part of Leonard Turton's response to Tim Perkins' request.