Reclaiming Quickness of Thought: Reading Calvino in the Context of Digital School Education

Calvino’s reflection on quickness brings the reader through a zig-zag journey without a predefined destination, crossing the history of literature in order to think about writing and the relationship between physical speed and speed of mind. To discuss quickness as a virtue, Calvino refers to the potentiality of human reasoning and typifies different styles of thought. Elaborating on quickness as a quality and a virtue in the contemporary societal and more particularly educational context which is conceptualized as “accelerated time” (Rosa Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity, 2013) and “network time” (Hassan Time & Society 12:226–241, 2003) might at first glance seem somewhat irrelevant. However, the pressing relevance of this virtue lies precisely in the digitized direction which school education is faced with. The shift towards digital school education bears the implication of decoupling the space and time of education from the here and now of the classroom. This, on the flip side means allowing global events as well as personal happenings of the teacher and students to enter the classroom, leading the lesson time to become a poly-synchronous time. That is against this contemporary background of digital education that this article attempts to relate to Calvino’s understanding of quickness. The article embarks on characterizing four aspects of Calvino’s reading of quickness and problematizes their manifestation in the current digital school education climate and finally, it seeks to open some concrete horizons for re-introducing quickness as a virtue for education in the digital age.