This is a quote from a research paper into the effect of time-pressure on creativity in organizations conducted at Harvard University.
I’m not citing it to indict school “managers” as guilty of creating school environments in which time-pressure build and builds and builds until the pressure valve of holidays releases us all.
Instead, I’m going to consider myself to be the manager of my students and to ask myself how much time-pressure I bring into the classroom. Sure, they do need to learn about and understand deadlines. But, I will certainly endeavour to give my students more time to work on inquiries and projects into which more creativity may flood if time-constraints are removed.
Let’s see what happens!
To read the full research paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers2/0102/02-073.pdf
Definitely a must. Less is more in many cases.