This is paper, okay?

And it will make you stupid. People will write down their knowledge into books, and they will no longer need to know it, and their memory will wither. At least, Plato thought so¹.

Fast forward 2,000 years and you find Richard Feynman turning the harmful product to his advantage. Here is James Gleick’s account:² Charles Weiner, encountering with a historian’s glee a batch of Feynman’s original notes and sketches, remarked that the materials represented ‘a record of Feynman’s day-to-day work.’

Feynman reacted with unexpected sharpness:

‘I actually did the work on the paper,’ he said.

‘Well,’ Weiner said, ‘the work was done in your head, but the record of it is still here.’

‘No, it’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work on paper and this is the paper. Okay?’

Which side are you on: Weiner or Feynman? Is writing a way of storing and communicating ideas, or is it a booster method for actually arriving at them? Next time you assign a small group discussion, make sure to go around the room looking at the notes taken during class. More importantly, pose a problem and check to see how many write something down in order to solve it. Chances are you will see students attempting to solve the problem in their head so that they can then record the solution on paper. But if your students want to reach for the stars, get them to grab a pad of paper and to start thinking on it.

Benjamin de Foy, Saint Louis University. 18 Nov 2010.

¹ “Orality and Literacy,” Walter J. Ong, Psychology Press, 2002 (see pg 78)

² “Genius: The Life And Science of Richard Feynman”, James Gleick, Pantheon Books, 1992 (see pg 409)