I have been working, on and off, as a substitute teacher for the last several months. It certainly gives me a great opportunity to observe student behavior. One of the most important aspects of their behavior is that they are often confronted with situations where they have to deal with…boredom. In almost every class I have been in (middle school and high school), I see students deal with boredom in ways that I never had a chance to do when I was their age (once gain, a very long time ago…).
I should preface this by saying that boredom is actually a great tool or the development of imagination. When I was in middle and high school there were at least as many opportunities for real boredom to ‘visit’ as there are in today’s classrooms. There is a difference, back then we seem to have been inured to being bored, or maybe there were so many fewer tools and opportunities to stave off the ‘seemingly’ pernicious effects of the dreaded lack of anything to do.
Nowadays, I see students (in a study hall, for instance) just pull out an iPod touch and put on their ear buds, listen to music, or play some game. Honestly, I would have loved to have had a chance to use that sort of technology when I was a boy.
This seems to be impelling me to ask a few questions. Is boredom a terrible thing, such that we need to forestall any of its impact upon our students? Is boredom a tool for us to develop? I have certainly been bored (painfully bored) in many situations in my life.
Or, can we flip this question around, and wonder if there is any real good that comes from having all of our wants assuaged (all the time). On its merits, this sounds like a working definition of being spoiled, doesn’t it? And further, this certainly doesn’t apply only to students (ahem…all of us, to various degrees…).
Are the technology toys that so many students brandish in classroom situations a good thing? Or is it because these toys don’t have any practical role in a class? This is edging onto a topic of a lot of debate, or at least a lot of actions and pronouncements. I am deferring to whether cell phones should be allowed in schools/classrooms. I have heard all kinds of rather sloppy arguments on both sides of this issue (from appeals to authority/use of dominance to, on the other side sloppily thought out point towards laissez faire ‘passing the buck’). There are some tools out there which create uses for these sorts of student owned technology, but I rarely see or hear about their use (other than on some education websites).
As a close, I don’t have any sort of nicely ‘tied in a bow’ ending to this post (actually, I rarely do…sorry). The fact is that these are arguments that are still in play.
Here are a few links…
http://donmball.posterous.com/the-value-of-boredom
http://jezebel.com/5435615/do-todays-kids-need-more-boredom
http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2446294/deal_with_boredom_at_school.html
