‘The need for a quick, satisfactory copying machine that could be used right in the office seemed very apparent to me. So I set out to think of how one could be made.’ [1]

- Chester Carlson

The money that is wasted on photocopying. And that’s before we get to glue sticks to stick the photocopies into books. We need to stop and have a word with ourselves. Why are we putting paper onto paper? There are some real problems with this beyond the high costs. For example, here are thousands of eco schools across the country and eco school status is proudly presented on school websites which is great. However, we can easily become seduced by the high profile efforts to save the world from rubbish, cut our emissions, clear litter, recycle and so on. But photocopying is low profile. And I think far more attention needs to be paid to it. Whether we are an eco school or not.  But it’s no use having a badge for something just for the sake of it. We need to get to a place where, to quote Contender Charlie. our values are lives, not just laminated.

Why does so much photocopying go on in schools? One response might be: it saves time, to which the further question might be ‘It saves time to do what?’ Another answer might be ‘I need these sheets as resources to use in class.’ Again, it is reasonable to ask why? It’s as though producing photocopied resources has become a crutch. As though a lesson can’t happen unless we have a pile of papers under our arms to present to a class.

Essentialism asks us to go back and ask these awkward questions. It’s not as though teaching and learning didn’t happen before the advent of photocopying. Decades ago, there were Banda machines - inky, oily and messy, so teachers had to be really clear about the benefits of copying off if they were prepared to go through this rigmarole. Funnily enough, learning still took place even before the Banda machine was invented.

But it’s not just the expense that we need to be mindful of. It is highly likely that the reliance on photocopies can lead to some lazy thinking and planning. Along the lines of ‘I’ve just found this great resource online, I could use that tomorrow, let’s print if off.’ I think we are better than that. It is possible that the resource we have just stumbled across is just the ticket and will fulfil a proper learning purpose. But let’s be honest, mostly this isn’t the case. Usually, photocopying resources is a short cut for proper professional thinking about the purpose of the lesson. I’m not talking about every case of course, but there’s enough of it going on for us to question it.

The argument here, is not the complete banning of photocopying, but a far more intentional approach to why we are doing so. Who really needs it? Are we sure that it isn’t just a prop? A further problem is that much photocopied stuff for pupils to complete becomes a proxy for learning. We look busy, they look busy, their books are stuffed with completed worksheets, so they must have learnt something, right? Well it doesn’t automatically follow. The completion of the worksheet does not mean that anything has necessarily been learnt. In fact the photocopying and completion of worksheets does no such thing. Too often they place very little cognitive load onto pupils and yet this lack of thinking is masked by the fact that they have stuff in their books.

Is this an argument for the banning of photocopying? Of course not. But it is important that we stop and think: why am I photocopying this? What will  pupils learn as a result of this resource? Could there be a better way of them doing this work. If they do it in a different way will there be a greater likelihood of their unique ideas and voices coming through? Probably yes. This is because one of the consequences of over reliance on photocopying resources is that they often put limits on pupils’ responses, their work all looks pretty much the same. And most importantly when you talk to them a bit later about what they have learnt they aren’t usually able to tell you very much. So, this is a significant investment for very little impact.

How then might things be done differently? Instead of photocopying could we show an image through a visualiser? Some text through a visualiser? A powerful image on the classroom wall? Agree the learning objectives and pupils where appropriate writing them down? Use post its rather than printing out WWW and EBI - these are likely to be more purposeful than random tick lists? Pupils actually doing work directly in their exercise books and folders?

So, what are the examples of things that might be considered for photocopying? These might be Information booklets which can’t be sourced in any other way; some knowledge organisers - but we could also think about whether some knowledge organisers could be constructed with the pupils and students in class, across the unit? This would also have the benefit of greater, appropriate cognitive load as the key words, concepts and important information would mean that pupils would have to think hard about what is being included, rather than just being given it by the teacher.

The case here is that only those things where the information can’t be gathered from elsewhere. Furthermore, whatever is photocopied should have material and information that goes beyond one lesson. It’s about extracting value from anything that we produce either through our own efforts or those carefully selected from elsewhere.

A judicious, hardnosed look at what we photocopy in  schools actually turns out to be something deeper: namely the extent to which we are offering our pupils top quality information and resources or a fast food type of diet which might satisfy our appetite in the short term but is likely to be missing some key nutrients in the long term.

[1] Owen, David (2004). Copies in Seconds: Chester Carlson and the birth of the Xerox machine. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 70. ISBN 0-7432-5118-0