School holidays make for some interesting childcare arrangements, and I’m sure more than a few parents have wondered, “How come they need so much time off when I only get four weeks?”
But perhaps there is actually something we can learn from the way the school year is structured.
Routines are important. They help us get things done, learn new skills and make progress. When we practise something regularly, it becomes easier and we can start to see ourselves improving. But doing the same thing week after week without a break can also become tiring. Sometimes we simply need to step away.
I know I do. If I keep pushing without taking a break, I can get stale. I stop seeing things clearly, my brain gets foggy and sometimes I just need to step away from whatever I’m working on for a while. When I come back, things often look a little different — and usually a lot clearer.
And taking a break doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
Think about a problem you’ve been working on that just isn’t quite right. You try again and again, but you can’t seem to work out what to do. Then you leave it alone for a while. When you come back to it, you suddenly see something you hadn’t noticed before.
Creativity works like that for me too. We don’t always have our best ideas while we are sitting down and trying very hard to have an idea — in fact, that hardly ever works for me! My ideas usually appear when I’m working on something completely different. I have to stop what I’m doing and write them down, otherwise — poof — they’re gone. I’ve learnt that my brain seems to do some of its best creative work when I’m not actually asking it to.
Sometimes a change of scenery, a good night’s sleep, a walk, a holiday or simply a few days away from a routine can give us the space to come back with fresh eyes. Stepping away doesn’t mean we’ve stopped thinking. Sometimes it gives our brains the room to think differently.
This is one of the things I love about the rhythm of school terms. There is time to learn, time to practise, time to challenge ourselves — and then there is time to stop.
The same applies to adults. We don’t stop needing breaks just because we have left school. In fact, as our lives become busier, making space to step away from our routines can become even more important.
At Sharz Art, our students sometimes come back after a break and surprise themselves with what they can do. They haven’t necessarily spent the holidays practising. They have simply had time to rest, think about things differently and come back ready to have another go. So perhaps school holidays aren’t really a break from learning after all.
Perhaps sometimes, taking a break is part of learning.