Whats wrong with being bored

Jul 22 2016 â€Å"I’m bored!† As parents and educators, those two words can stir either feelings of anxiety (â€Å"How can I keep my child busy and productive?†) or frustration (â€Å"If you're bored, then you’re boring. Go find something to do!†) May I suggest that perhaps a better response is â€Å"Good for you!†? As Andrew and I chatted during our recent Arts of Language podcast, Episodes 51 and 52: Nature Deficit Disorder, he expressed surprise about the need for a month devoted to fighting boredom. We are living in a world where children rarely have the chance to get bored. Is it because they are busy riding bikes and building tree forts? Likely not. According to Pacific Standard Magazine, â€Å"People today spend up to 25% less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago.† So what are they up to? Video games, iPads, and other electronics fill the time of most American children. â€Å"A child is six times more likely to play a video game on a typical day than to ride a bike,† according to surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the CDC. The results of all these video games? â€Å"Videophilia,† which is defined as â€Å"the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.† Though perhaps you, like me, were intentional about making time for outdoor activities. Soccer and Little League filled our spring and fall months. But is a plethora of planned activity like this always a good idea? You likely don’t have to go far to see that there can be too much of a good thing. Andrew winds down our conversation with these thoughts: I want to make the argument that boredom might be good, because when you've got nothing to do, you have to learn to be comfortable in your own mind with yourself, and you have to learn to be able to think quietly, appreciate your thoughts, and explore your memories and your dreams. And so perhaps we should have a pro-boredom month, where people will put away all the distractions that prevent them from hearing themselves think. So how can you celebrate this month? Perhaps you can set aside a day or two to spend unstructured time outdoors with your children. They need time to think, daydream, find images in the clouds and rocks, and imagine. If that sounds wonderful to you, then schedule it! And enjoy being bored. Julie Walker, IEW's Marketing Director, was a schoolteacher and homeschool leader for many years. She and her husband, David, provided a home education for their three sons. After their youngest son graduated, she went back to school herself, completing her MBA at Biola University. Although she relocated with IEW from California to Oklahoma, Julie finds many reasons to go west and enjoy the California sunshine. Log in or register to post commentsJulie Walkers blog Log in or register to post comments