There’s so much emphasis at the moment in active learning, often accompanied with the (implicit) belief that this needs to be a collaborative activity. I think both are important, and also enjoyable – but sometimes peace and solitude are just as productive, if not more.
Today I have spent time in my kitchen away from social media – chopping fruit and veg for relish, stirring together chocolate and nuts for fudge, churning yogurt and vanilla for ice cream and then stirring the remainder of the Christmas pudding through it. As I cooked, my mind wandered – thinking about PhD stuff, and presentations I need to write, and things I have read over the last few days.
Bacon says somewhere that there are three elements to learning: reading, writing and discussing. But of course there’s another – thinking is also important, and I worry that this vital element is being overlooked. Today I made space for it.
Amen, Sarah! Our world is increasing full of noise, and my observation is many younger people don’t know what to do with silence. I wonder if they are every getting into the realm where divergent ideas have time to be stirred into new understanding.
Agree. Finding time to reflect and think about all of the information and ideas crossing our lives, both digital, and non-digital, is really important. Looking at your cooking, I think someone is in for a great feast! Happy New Year.
Perhaps that’s part of why many schools are considering adding in meditation. And the think time in think-pair-share– how long is that? And peace and solitude for just creating, like your cooking to let ideas slurp around in the brain to be soaked up in new connections. Glad you took this time and then wrote about it for our own consideration. 🙂