As Simple as One, Two, Three

You probably cut your teeth on the rule of three—on mitten-losing kittens and house-building pigs, and wise monkeys who saw no evil, heard no evil, and spoke no evil. You memorized the story of Goldilocks finding three bowls and three chairs and three beds. You shouted ready, set, go and learned the red, yellow, and green of a traffic light.

The rule of three kept showing up—in science (solid, liquid gas), famous speeches (blood, sweat, tears), historic documents (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness), safety slogans (stop, look, listen), literature (ghosts of Christmas past, present, future), sports (three strikes; you’re out), and food (bacon, lettuce, and tomato).

And if you came to believe that it’s as simple as one, two, three, you’d be right.

Our brains like patterns, especially trios, the smallest possible pattern. We find groups of three satisfying and easy to remember. We watch for them in books and movies. Even in casual conversation, we instinctively wait for the third item in a list before taking our turns to speak.

Educators know that brains can process three “chunks” in short-term memory. More than three, students tune us out.

So how can you tap into the three-loving brain? Here are—you guessed it—three ways:

• Three Ideas—When I led tours at the Columbus Museum of Art, I noticed how quickly visitors’ eyes could dull in front of a painting. “Let’s find three contrasts in this scene,” I’d say to them. And their eyes snapped back into focus. Try it in all the disciplines—three achievements of Dorothea Dix, three literary devices in To Kill a Mockingbird, three traits of the sun. Give them three, there’s a chance they’ll remember.
• Three Times—Repeat it to help them keep it. And intensify each round—they hear it, muck about in it, and teach each other. Most people remember 5 percent of what they hear, 75 percent of what they do, and 90 percent of what they teach.
• Three Ways—Pull in the whole brain. Give students something to see (Venn diagrams, paintings, objects, timelines), something to hear (a lecture, excerpts from a speech, chants from a demonstration, songs from the Great Depression), and something to do (label a map, assemble a chart, peer through a microscope, prove a theorem, debate an issue).

In the mid-300s B.C., the famous teacher Aristotle wrote the three-word phrase Omne trium perfectum, translated toEnglish as what comes in threes is perfect.

So try it—three ideas, three times, in three ways.