Learning to Waste Time

So this morning I helped to lead a faculty workshop here at Dordt on the topic of technology and teaching. All I can say is "wow". Interesting discussion... unexpected reactions... but it was a good honest interaction. There is one comment that has really stuck with me... One of the professors lamented the fact that we have lost the ability to "waste time". What he meant was... we are losing the process. The time to sit in confusion... to "scratch our heads" as he put it. The time to start a paper... only to crumple it up (or push delete) and start over. The time to wrestle with formulas or read something 4 times just to get it... What I think he is lamenting is the space for reflection... for process. To not be in such a hurry to get the point - or the answer - or the solution.

Sorry to say but this is what we are making the educational process... an answering producing machine. Tell me what I have to know and get on with it... utilitarianism seems to be winning the day.

I had lunch with another prof who took the idea further. Not only are we losing the ability to "waste time" in reflection or process... but we are losing the ability to "waste time" just messing around. A little mischief... or time spent doing nothing in particular with the people we love... Perceptive...

But how do we rewire our thinking? Especially when the very structures we create tend to emphasize productivity, efficiency, as my wife said the "Northwest Iowa (and other areas...) Work Ethic". How does the academy become less about job training and more about becoming counter cultural in the formation of young people? That, as they say, is the "million dollar question".