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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOpinion: Let Children Get Bored Again
But boredom is something to experience rather than hastily swipe away. And not as some kind of cruel Victorian conditioning, recommended because its awful and toughens you up. Despite the lesson most adults learned growing up boredom is for boring people boredom is useful. Its good for you.
If kids dont figure this out early on, theyre in for a nasty surprise. School, lets face it, can be dull, and it isnt actually the teachers job to entertain as well as educate. Life isnt meant to be an endless parade of amusements. Thats right, a mother says to her daughter in Maria Semples 2012 novel, Whered You Go, Bernadette. You are bored. And Im going to let you in on a little secret about life. You think its boring now? Well, it only gets more boring. The sooner you learn its on you to make life interesting, the better off youll be.
People used to accept that much of life was boring. Memoirs of pre-21st-century life are rife with tedium. When not idling in drawing rooms, members of the leisured class took long walks and stared at trees. They went motoring and stared at more trees. Those who had to work had it a lot harder. Agricultural and industrial jobs were often mind-numbing; few people were looking to be fulfilled by paid labor. Children could expect those kinds of futures and they got used to the idea from an early age, left unattended with nothing but bookshelves and tree branches, and later, bad afternoon television.
Only a few short decades ago, during the lost age of underparenting, grown-ups thought a certain amount of boredom was appropriate. And children came to appreciate their empty agendas. In an interview with GQ magazine, Lin-Manuel Miranda credited his unattended afternoons with fostering inspiration. Because there is nothing better to spur creativity than a blank page or an empty bedroom, he said.
Nowadays, subjecting a child to such inactivity is viewed as a dereliction of parental duty. In a much-read story in The Times, The Relentlessness of Modern Parenting, Claire Cain Miller cited a recent study that found that regardless of class, income or race, parents believed that children who were bored after school should be enrolled in extracurricular activities, and that parents who were busy should stop their task and draw with their children if asked.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/children-bored.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur
lapucelle
(18,252 posts)how to occupy themselves when they are bored.
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)and projects we invented and discovered while growing up when there was no TV time. It really fostered our imaginations which stimulates the brain. When I became a teacher (after being an artist) I tried to give my students as many chances to discover things on their own in a free and safe environment. It is as necessary as regular lessons in academics.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Are there Cliff notes?