Decades ago, a graduate dean instructing one of my doctoral classes wrote an interesting piece about the importance of taking time to think, to reflect, to ask important questions daily.  I kept that article pinned to my bulletin board, and then, for years after one of my moves, I couldn’t even find the bulletin board!
Because those thoughts struck a chord with me, I’m always intrigued whenever I re-encounter similar quotes, like this one by Mortimer Adler:  “When I have nothing to do . . . I sit back in a chair and let my mind relax.  I do what I call idling.  It’s as if the motorcar’s running but you haven’t got it in gear.  You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.”
This seems like good advice for all of us, no matter our profession.  But when it comes to public education, it strikes me as vital.  And when it comes to giving our teachers crucial time to think, I fear we are sadly missing the mark, to the detriment of all of us.
Our educational system demands so much from our teachers, especially in the way of time, that we are robbing them of some valuable and important time to just plain think and reflect, especially during the school day.  And this robbery is not just hurting them, it’s hurting their students in turn, and therefore all of us in society.
Among other things, I’m thinking especially of the non-teaching duties we dump on teachers.  Attendance, money collection, passes, grade recording, and countless other administrative details in the classroom.  Hall duty, lunch room duty, ball game duties, other duties outside the classroom and even outside the school day.  All this and usually – for the elementary teacher, anyway, who gets no “planning period” – not a single minute in a day to spare, let alone reflect or plan! (or even rejuvenate! – when was the last time you dealt with two dozen or more youngsters?)
It is a daily schedule and list of demands that require incredible energy, not to mention excellent planning and organization.  With little – if any -time to think, to adapt, to adjust, to revive.
No one can deny the need for the various non-teaching duties and details mentioned above.  And, as always, I’m not sure that there is an immediate (or at least an immediate inexpensive) solution to the dilemma.
Still I wonder.  Do we really want our teachers – our most valuable resources – doing all these things?  We barely give our teachers time enough to ‘teach’, let alone give them any time to put their minds in neutral or time to think and reflect.  This is especially true when thinking is so crucial for a teacher:  thinking about how the last class went, about how to get a concept across better, about a new assessment technique, let alone about how to communicate an interest in Johnny or a concern for a home problem of Sarah’s!
All these ‘neutral moments’ are so crucial to good teaching and learning, and to good, safe learning environments and yet we continue to rob our teachers of them by stealing – or not providing – this crucial time to think.
[Postscript:  To see the previously promised discussion of solutions to the Calendar Cube Problem, visit this link –Problem Discussions.]