Wanted: Space

I keep thinking about the interior design concept of space. Sometimes it is what is not there that makes what is there so much more. For example, think of a typical family room in a home inhabited by a typical busy family. That room accumulates and accumulates unless someone takes care to keep it tidy and attractive and useful. Hoodies and bags and papers and laundry and stuff pile up organically. It just happens. The room effortlessly becomes chaos. Cleaning and tidying can only achieve so much. Often, there is too much furniture in the room to begin with. Removing some furniture and rearranging essential pieces may be needed to bring order and appeal to the room. Simplifying and reducing, therefore creating space where there had been none improves the aesthetics of the room. This applies to the classroom as well. As teachers, sometimes we talk and talk and talk. It's our classroom, we're in control and its our place to lead the parade. In general, I think that teachers talk too much. There is not enough listening and thinking and quiet in most classrooms. Somehow, quietness has gotten a bad name. From time to time, I deliberately devote chunks of classroom time to quiet reflection and individual thinking. It is so hard for me to do this. Shouldn't I be *doing* something? Shouldn't I be *talking*? Shouldn't there be some *action* at all times? I think back to my analogy of the cluttered family room. If I am constantly talking during a class period, that also means that there has been no space created to allow for pure individual thought, unassisted conclusions, intuitive connections, reflection and settling. If I am still yammering on, students may succeed at these things but only in competitive to my voice, my ideas and my direction. The classroom needs space!