The Value of Blackboards

In the early 1970s, Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Fred Shero — before a winner-take-all championship game — went to the blackboard and in white chalk wrote: “Win today and we will walk together for life.” The Flyers did. 

In the opening scene of “Good Will Hunting,” we see Will Hunting washing floors, then examining an advanced Fourier system on the main chalkboard for the MIT Students to solve. In the quiet of the night, while working, Hunting secretly solves the equation no other student could. 

Recently, in the movie “Oppenheimer,” we see J. Robert Oppenheimer working on his quantum physics problem — which would eventually lead to atomic energy — on a chalkboard with various equations spread out on the boards.

Movie makers love a chalkboard. It brings a sense of nostalgia combined with intellectual discovery we all wish we possessed. So do scientists, mathematicians and physicists. 

Why? 

Because using chalk sparks curiosity. It forces us to imagine, then create. We think, we have an idea, we write it down, all while standing and having others observe.

“Physics is a process of getting stuck,” explains the London Institute’s director, Thomas Fink. “Blackboards are the best tool for getting unstuck. You do most of your calculations on paper. Then, when you reach a dead end, you go to the blackboard and share the problem with a colleague. But here’s the funny thing. You often solve the problem yourself in the process of writing it out.”

When you go to a blackboard three stages occur: The writing, the relay and, most importantly, the rethink. 

All out in the open for others to observe and review with no threat of losing the data. 

There is a sense of freedom from the security of knowing the information you place in chalk won’t be lost, stolen, or misplaced in some cloud. Some would argue a grease board offers the same result, with a cleaner approach. What separates the two is often when an eraser is used, there is still some lingering chalk remaining, traces of the first draft, which allows the writer to see what was good and bad. 

Roland Allen in his book “The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper,” explores the history of note taking and the power of using pencil and paper to record and refine our ideas. 

Allen explores the Medieval period in Florence, to the present and how artist, painters, writers relied on notebooks to flush out ideas. When we first write down an idea, it’s never perfect. The clarity we had in our minds, never perfectly reaches the paper. Then through a relay mechanism we refine our thoughts, with focus. By moving the pen across the page, Allen through his impeccable research states the results are staggering, allowing us to be more creative, more productive, and happier. The simple act of writing our ideas on paper, slows our minds, which then allows new ideas to take shape. And before long, what we visualized in our heads becomes clear on the paper. 

And when we use a blackboard, the same effect takes shape, only now we allow others to join. 

Christie Marr, the executive director of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences in London, offers this assessment of the value of the blackboard and writing out ideas.

“When you look at it, you can see what kind of dialogue took place there. Whether it was pedagogical. Whether they had it already mapped out. Or you might see three or four hands operating at the same time. Different colors. Smears. Crossings-out. Wrong turns. U-turns and moments of sudden clarity. The end result is a whole conversation that happened in chalk. That’s a beautiful thing.”

Technology is a wonderful thing. Yet, there are times when chalk, pen and paper are still the best method of finding our creative side. 

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