{"id":5129,"date":"2025-07-12T07:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2025-07-12T07:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:12:23","slug":"slow-productivity-in-school-part-4-obsess-over-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2025\/07\/12\/slow-productivity-in-school-part-4-obsess-over-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Productivity in School: Part 4, Obsess Over Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In this series on Slow Productivity in School<\/a>, we\u2019ve been exploring the paradox of festina lente<\/em> (\u201chasten slowly\u201d). When it comes to the work of learning, sometimes you must go slow to go fast. Or, perhaps more accurately, you must slow down to be truly productive. Taking our cues from Cal Newport\u2019s Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout<\/a><\/em>, we are applying his three principles for slow productivity to our teaching practices in classical Christian schools (1. Do Fewer Things, 2. Work at a Natural Pace, 3. Obsess Over Quality).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After first diagnosing the problem of pseudo-productivity in modern schools<\/a>, analogous to the hustle culture of modern work environments, we then explored the well-known Latin phrase multum non multa<\/em> (\u201cmuch not many things\u201d) under the principle of doing fewer things<\/a>. The key takeaway is that rather than cutting down on \u201csubjects\u201d to the bare essentials, this principle really applies best to the number and quality of \u201cassignments.\u201d Students in our classical Christian schools can read and study widely without suffering through busywork. Second, we explored the need to work at a natural pace<\/a> as an explanation of how we can recover school as schol\u00e9<\/em> or leisure. The point is that there are rhythms to ideal learning and racing through worksheets and covering pages of textbooks like the wind isn\u2019t necessarily the best for deep understanding and long term retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this final article, we\u2019re focusing on the principle that we might call the main goal of it all: \u201cObsess over quality.\u201d  In a way, doing fewer things and working at a natural pace are pointless if they don\u2019t lead to an increased focus on quality. At the beginning we set out the idea that what really lurks behind the phrase multum non multa<\/em> is a prioritization of depth over breadth and quality over quantity. Slowness is not an end in itself but is meant to serve the real or genuine productivity. Newport describes this final principle of obsessing over quality this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cObsess over the quality of what you produce, even if this means missing opportunities in the short term. Leverage the value of these results to gain more and more freedom in your efforts over the long term\u201d (173). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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For those of us who work in classical Christian schools, as I have argued elsewhere (see Rethinking the Purpose of Education<\/a><\/em>), the true purpose of our educational efforts should be the cultivation of moral, spiritual, and intellectual virtues in our students. If that is the case, then haste can be the enemy of progress. Instead, as master craftsmen, we teachers and educators need to take the necessary time to cultivate mastery in our students. Slipshod, shoddy work, rushed through quickly, without attention to the details and to a host of minor improvements necessary for quality do not \u201cmove the needle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a real mental shift that must occur here for many of us. We have had the rat-race of school so ingrained in our psyche, that we feel like we are wasting time if we\u2019re not completing a worksheet or a powerpoint buzzer quiz every 20 min. Our media-saturated world too has reduced our attention span and given us ADD for the type of focused effort that actually forges increased quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another culprit to our busyness of attitude is the knowledge-transfer vision of education, as opposed to the traditional liberal arts approach. We tend to envision the main part of education as a process of information download, rather than students developing mastery in handling certain well-worn tools. When we view K-12 education instead through the lens of helping students hone their artistry in the liberal arts, then we will focus more on the students producing high quality interpretations, arguments, and persuasive compositions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students would then develop an artist\u2019s eye for quality and mastery in the creative productions of the liberal arts, including of course in math and science. This focus then multiplies labor by making their own independent reading and thinking that much more effective. They are then able to hasten along the path of lifelong learning with ease, because the way has been smoothed for them by mastering the fundamental skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What does this all mean practically for teachers working with students in the classroom? In her book Home Education<\/em>, Charlotte Mason<\/a> proposed the habit of perfect execution as a major guiding vision for training young children. She explained,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Throw perfection into all you do\u2019 is a counsel upon which a family may be brought up with great advantage. We English, as a nation, think too much of persons, and too little of things, work, execution. Our children are allowed to make their figures or their letters, their stitches, their dolls\u2019 clothes, their small carpentry, anyhow, with the notion that they will do better by-and-by. Other nations\u2013the Germans and the French, for instance\u2013look at the question philosophically, and know that if children get the habit of turning out imperfect work, the men and women will undoubtedly keep that habit up. I remember being delighted with the work of a class of about forty children, of six and seven, in an elementary school at Heidelberg. They were doing a writing lesson, accompanied by a good deal of oral teaching from a master, who wrote each word on the blackboard. By-and-by the slates were shown, and I did not observe one faulty or irregular letter on the whole forty slates. (110-111)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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If what Mason says was true of Victorian England, how much more would she note \u201cthe Habit of turning out Imperfect Work\u201d in 21st century America. Her example demonstrates that this feature is to a large extent cultural, and may have to do with our Rousseauian focus on children\u2019s \u201cpersonality\u201d and \u201cdevelopmental readiness.\u201d Our teachers may make excuses for failing to hold out the standard for careful execution of work based on how large the class is (\u201cI simply can\u2019t get around to all sixteen students!\u201d), but this German class of forty puts us to shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, Mason does have a category for setting the bar too high for students. It is possible to obsess over the wrong details or expect a type of detailed quality that is not yet attainable by a young novice. Mason explains, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required from him as a matter of course. For instance, he is set to do a copy of strokes, and is allowed to show a slateful at all sorts of slopes and all sorts of intervals; his moral sense is vitiated, his eye is injured. Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes, at regular distances and at regular slopes. If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on to-morrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph. So with the little tasks of painting, drawing or construction he sets himself\u2013let everything he does be well done. An unsteady house of cards is a thing to be ashamed of. (111)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It can be seen from this that Mason endorses explicitly the principles of doing fewer things at a natural pace, in order to enable an obsession over quality. Clearly she wants students to internalize the mindset of mastery from an early age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s important to clarify that this is not the sort of perfectionism that expects to never make mistakes in the first place. She is endorsing rather the type of growth mindset<\/a> that believes that every child can<\/em> produce high quality and accurate work, if they are given the time and held accountable for doing so. This mindset actually functions to empower the student and enable progress. Filling a slate with incorrect strokes does not improve a student\u2019s handwriting, but tends to solidify bad habits. As my gymnastics coach drill in to us when we were young, \u201cPractice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This paradoxical focus on perfection by actively attending to and correcting mistakes is characteristic of what Daniel Coyle calls deep practice. As he explains, \u201cstruggling in certain targeted ways\u2013operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes\u2013makes you smarter. Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you\u2019re forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them\u2013as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go\u2013end up making you swift and graceful without you realizing it\u201d (The Talent Code<\/a><\/em>, 18). This provides a helpful counter to a misunderstanding of Mason\u2019s insistence that \u201cno work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly,\u201d which might lead us to ease the way too much and avoid appropriate challenges. We have to read in to her version of \u201ccannot\u201d a much stronger belief in the capability of children than we tend to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The practical applications of this habit of perfect execution and obsession over quality are endless and as varied as the nature of the many subjects and arts that we teach. So, instead it might be more helpful to open out our gaze again to all three principles, and provide a series of practical applications to the classroom that fuse a holistic vision for slow productivity in school through 1) doing fewer things, 2) working at a natural pace, and 3) obsessing over quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Practical Applications of Slow Productivity in School<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, emphasize deep engagement<\/strong> with material over superficial coverage. This will involve a reduced workload, time for contemplation, and the ability to marinate in the knowledge and skills they are gaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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