In the midst of yesterday’s post I got a new idea. This is something in which I revel, and quite honestly, I get to experience more rarely than I would ever wish (maybe I’m slow or lazy…who knows…). In any case, while doing some online research about classroom boredom, it occurred to me that boredom may be a very important thing…a very good thing!
It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention, but I think that boredom may be a large element in anything new that we see…if you go back far enough… And in this regard, there are some problems with how boredom is ‘inculcated’ to the newer members of our society. Before my time, most people had plenty of opportunities to deal with boredom (often masked as ‘a slower pace of life’). Being brought up to deal with these experiences has great worth. Nowadays, children are often overscheduled, and any fleeting situation where there this, the specter of boredom, is lurking is filled with DVD’s, videos, playstation games, etc. etc. we have at least one generation which hasn’t learned to deal with lack of stimulation (this lack could be called boredom, but may be the mother of invention!).
There are some bright spots to see that my thesis may actually have some merit. When I was living in East Asia (last year…), I often saw many students displaying some quite incredible pen juggling tricks as they read in class. These ‘pen spinning’ skills were quite obviously the result of hundreds of hours of practice. This practice could only have come from ‘boring’ classes that they had been subjected to. My point is that all of these students had cell phones, but they were scrupulously collected and redistributed at the end of each class day. In essence, they had to do something to fill in the void. And in this case it was all about developing some fine motor skills required to manipulate a pen is such a manner.
Back here in the USA, I see some high school student who can do some pen spinning tricks, but to a lesser degree than I had seen in an environment where the students were literally forced to have to rely upon this to ‘make it through the day’.
My point is that having opportunities to actually deal with less stimulation than one is used to may have some quite specific value to a person. It leads to other tangential skills such as “a willing suspension of disbelief’, a skill needed to really ‘get into, and enjoy’ a book, or a movie. This suspension is also a great skill to have in a classroom as a student.
As a parting shot, I have a few videos of some pen spinning tricks and a few links (if you are interested in learning more…)
and here are some links…
