Walking is man’s own, unique in the animal kingdom. Michel Serres, the charming thinker, rambles on in a gorgeous short podcast episode (in French) about how the walking pace, like the rhythm of the beating heart, is one of the most effective stimulants for thought.

This reminded me of my recent reading of Beyond Culture by Edward T. Hall, where he argues that forcing pupils to stay still while being force-fed learning is counter to how our brain closely associates functions of problem solving to body movement:

The frontal part of the brain, the part where synthesis of thoughts and ideas as well as their expression takes place, is concerned in part with five surprisingly different but apparently related activities – perception, body movement, performance of planned action, memorizing, problem solving. Body movement! Who would have thought that body movement was related to problem solving? Can’t you just see old Miss Quinby telling Johnny, who is having trouble solving a problem in arithmetic, to stop fidgeting!