Less Is More

Content dictates form • Less is more • God is in the details
all in the service of
Clarity
without which nothing else matters.

– Stephen Sondheim

This is the mantra at the beginning of both volumes of Stephen Sondheim’s magical lyric collections, Finishing The Hat and Look, I Made a Hat.

But of course, this mantra can be applied to much more than lyrics. Over the next few days, I’ll be considering each part of the mantra as it applies to teaching.


Less is more is a complicated rule to apply to anything – because it’s true in some aspects of your craft, but not true in others. Less is not more when applied to practicing your skills. Less is not more when applied to explaining a new mathematics concept. Less might be more in applying dry analysis to a poem in class, but more is more when it comes to reading and discussing the poetry.

So how is less more in teaching? Less is more when it comes to talking in rehearsal. (As I heard Steve Zegree say at least 500 times, “Talk less, say more.”) Less is more when it comes to expending unnecessary energy outside of class. (There is so much to do – if you use up energy on tasks that could be done more efficiently, you will not survive a school year intact.) Less is more when it comes to unnecessarily complicating instructions.

Less is more when it comes to assigning homework. In all classes.

But more is more when it comes to walking into class prepared. More is more when it comes to using different language to communicate the same concepts for different learners. More is more when it comes to expressing your love for the material, for the process, and for the students in your care.

Sondheim didn’t think “less is more” in all situations: it doesn’t take more than two Sondheim songs to know that he often loved a “more is more” approach. But applied correctly, “less is more” can make you a better artist and a better teacher.

Tomorrow: God is in the details.