The document discusses Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory. It provides examples of two students, Lucas and David, who are both 10 years old but have a mental age of 8 years old. For a task with a difficulty level of 8 years, they can complete it without help. For a task with a higher difficulty level, the teacher provides help through tips and clues, which allows the students' mental ages to increase into the next developmental stage. The document poses the question of whether teachers should help children with homework based on this zone of proximal development theory.