Could faculty benefit from a monastery experience?

A few months ago, the New York Times ran a fascinating Guest Opinion, Why Universities Should Be More Like Monasteries by Molly Worth, a historian at University of North Carolina. She describes a popular undergraduate course, the "monk" class, at the University of Pennsylvania. 

On the first day of class — officially called Living Deliberately — Justin McDaniel, a professor of Southeast Asian and religious studies, reviewed the rules. Each week, students would read about a different monastic tradition and adopt some of its practices. Later in the semester, they would observe a one-month vow of silence (except for discussions during Living Deliberately) and fast from technology, handing over their phones to him.

This got me wondering about whether universities and funding agencies might experiment with similar initiatives for faculty. It might be a bit like the Aspen Center for Physics and Gordon Research Conferences were before the internet. Faculty would surrender their phones and have the internet disabled on their computers. For one week they would be required to spend their time reading, writing, and thinking. Exercise, daydreaming, doodling, and just having fun are to be encouraged. No administrative work or grant writing. The emphasis would be coming up with new ideas, not finishing off old work. For one hour per day, participants could meet with others and talk about their new ideas. I think it might be refreshing, reinvigorating, and highly productive (in the true sense of the word).

After trialling the program for a week, why not then try it for month-long periods.

These are the conditions under which Newton wrote the Principia and Darwin The Origin of Species. In their case, they did it over a period of several years.

What do you think?

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 17, 2023 at 9:09 PM

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/opinion/black-holes-science-imagination.html
    by Prof Carlo Rovelli , nice article . Prof CR is Reading , Writing and Thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 18, 2023 at 7:53 AM

    Why give PhD which has a huge philosophy baggage. Many PhDs do not have an iota of philosophy in them. Assembly line production is there of Philosophers Why not call it doctorate degree .For example they award DSc after PhD. Why? Philosophy is not easy .

    Philip Davies good review of Carlo Rovelli's Helgoland . Heisenberg on a island rock monk like laying foundations of quantum mechanics
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZx1CNFlo8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ross H. McKenzieOctober 20, 2023 at 4:49 PM

      Thanks for this comment. I did not know that important part of history involving Heisenberg.
      For those who prefer written reviews to video ones,
      https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/26/helgoland-by-carlo-rovelli-review-a-meditation-on-quantum-theory

      Delete
  3. Mark VerberOctober 20, 2023 at 11:39 AM

    Makes good sense to me. I remember my dad coming back from Gordon Conferences brimming with energy and ideas. Cal Newport has been writing about deep work for awhile and has a lot of practice suggestions. In my own life I have repeatedly seen taking a retreat from day work often let me find solutions to what seemed like intractable problems. Sometimes while I was hiking by myself, sometimes when I was helping someone work through one of their problems.

    ReplyDelete

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