Slowing Down to Catch Up

In Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less, psychologist Guy Claxton says the tendency of our accelerated society to push us to think faster and make decisions quickly can stifle creativity because it over-emphasizes reason, logic, or analytical thinking—what he calls d-mind (d is for deliberation). In today's Western culture, he says, "time spent exploring the question is only justified to the extent that it clearly leads toward a solution to the problem. To spend time dwelling on the question to see if it might lead to a deeper question seems inefficient, self-indulgent, or perverse." Claxton says the "intelligent unconscious," which he calls the "undermind" or "tortoise mind," is a "patient, playful, mysterious" way of knowing that is especially valuable when the situation is "shadowy, intricate, or ill-defined."

In other words, innovators in science and industry use disciplinary knowledge and methods but more is at work in the emergence of breakthroughs. Opportunities for incubation—that mysterious process where nothing seems to be happening—are vital in the research and development jobs that will drive our future economy.

Is there time for incubation in the learning that happens at school? What might happen if students were allowed to arrive at the "aha!" moment more naturally? What if they were given opportunities to play spontaneously with ideas, tools, and concepts? What if they began each year with big interdisciplinary problems that could be continually revisited as learning unfolded?

This, of course, would mean the end of "periods" and "units." There would need to be some time built into the day for choice and freedom. Assessment would need to be fluid, formative, and flexible. The accountability systems and those in business who call for both rigor and 21st century skills would need to trust the tortoise mind.

Photo by The Learning Commonwealth at Wikimedia Commons.