‘The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It's less about the speed and more about investing the right amount of time and attention in the problem so you solve it.’ Carl Honoré
If we are to do justice to the curriculum, we need to take the right amount of time. The pressure to rush through the material is real. There can be a tendency to focus on
speed at the expense of depth
swiftness of coverage over security of that coverage
superficial knowledge at the expense of deep understanding
Somehow, we have got it into our heads that fast is good and slow is bad.
There was a time when some schools were encouraged to inject more pace into lessons and that was because the thread of the lesson was drifting, and, in some cases, it was sluggish, with too little being expected of pupils. However, most of that has been eradicated and instead speed trumps more thoughtful ways through the curriculum.
One way of thinking about this is by considering the curriculum as a banquet. In this analogy, the gifts of the subjects are offered and opened up to children. But because speed is the trump card, they do not have enough time to do more than taste a few elements and if they do swallow some of it, they get indigestion because they are being moved quickly on to the next ‘course’.
If we are to honour the curriculum and children’s learning, we need to think of pace differently - pace needs to be appropriate to the learning. There will be times when it is appropriate to move on quickly, but only because it is clear that pupils have got it and now need something additional.
Mostly, however, things need to slow down. It is simply not possible to work through a curriculum at break-neck speed. All that happens is that the destination is reached, but without any of the necessary equipment or indicators to be able to say whether it had been a successful journey or not.
When pace is privileged over security of content, there is often some confusion between the work and the learning and it goes something like this: well, we have done it, so they should have got it. But between the doing and the being able to say that they have got it, lessons need to slow down so that the curriculum matter can be properly digested. And this can only be done through talk, discussion, making mistakes and addressing misconceptions.
Mistakes need to be celebrated as the launchpad for new learning - if all our pupils understand things the first time round then the work is probably too easy.
By slowing down and going deeper, we not only make things more meaningful for children, we are also able to select fewer resources, which we explore in depth: digging deeper, lingering longer.
And when you’re ready, you might find these helpful for curriculum development in your school
Primary Subject Networks, live and recorded. Last week was Latin and history. Coming up: geography and music
Huh Curriculum Leaders Course: NOW FULL
Next cohort January - February 2023 More info here
I find this really interesting, great piece!
I teach Fashion Design for 16-19yo’s but I have a question around the pace of projects in relation to the pace of industry i.e fast fashion, and whether traditional pace of fewer, longer projects is still relevant.
Pace of delivery needs time as you say and I agree mistakes need to be celebrated.
The traditional pace of project based vocational delivery doesn’t always support this however.
Interesting thanks for your insight