If you grew up in the 80s and 90s like I did (or even in earlier decades), you know very well the reality of growing up mostly screen free. You know what it’s like to make your own fun. You remember times growing up when you were forced to come up with your own ideas, rather than relying on a little screen. Simply put, you know how to be bored– and how to be okay with it!
Today’s kids are becoming more and more intolerant of boredom. I can’t tell you the amount of times I hear my own children say, “I’m bored! Can I play a game on your phone?”, to which I always respond with, “Nope! It’s okay to be bored! Put your mind to work and think of something fun to do!” The majority of the time, they will complain about it and try to state their case again and again, but every now and then, if they will sit in their boredom long enough, it’s amazing what they can come up with!
Classrooms are experiencing the same epidemic. Because of the mass amount of information they are being fed through screens and other devices on a daily basis, their brains just can’t seem to handle any amount of down time. It’s almost like a panic mode clicks on– they can’t even fathom not having anything to do or look at, and that seems to drive anxiety and stress. Students are afraid of quiet. They are afraid of letting their minds relax and think away from screens.
Granted, boredom is a stark contrast to the go go go state that their developing brains are almost always in. Quiet, slow, imaginative thinking is becoming a foreign concept. Students are so used to information being fed to them at a rapid pace that they aren’t sure how to slow their brains down. It’s like rush hour traffic, when hundreds of drivers are trying to merge onto, navigate, and drive on the same road. It’s chaotic and sometimes messy. There is so much going on all at once that it’s hard to make any sense of it all. It’s easy to miss things that are happening. Compare that to a late evening freeway: the amount of traffic has decreased dramatically. Cars don’t have to fight for a spot on the highway. The chaos is minimized. The noise and messiness have almost disappeared. It becomes much easier to navigate the road and notice things that are happening.
Kids today can greatly benefit from being bored. Their minds will quiet down. They will learn to listen to their own minds and come up with their own ideas. Imaginations will soar. Anxiety will lessen. Boredom will become something that is okay, and hopefully at some point, something that is wanted because of the benefits that come from it. Boredom can be a powerful thing if we allow it to be.