It often depends where this statement is announced and under which circumstances. Certainly, if it is coming from some course that a child is taking, then perhaps the lines of communication need to be opened between the teacher and the home. This is not necessarily what this article is about. Boredom is a natural state of the human mind, especially in children. It signifies a number of positive and negative thought patterns. Positively, it means that the mind has come to a fork in the road, where a major decision might be required, or the expanse of knowledge and experience has come to its logical and temporal conclusion. On the negative side, boredom identifies a lack of stimulation, inspiration, and the ability to self-engage and self-entertain. Whether it is a positive or negative situation, the ultimate result, for the student, would be to “snap out of it.” Boredom has at its root cause the decision making process and the ability to make choices in concert with others , and more importantly, by one’s self. The release of boredom is the exercise of freedom with responsibility.
Although it can never be found anywhere in the Ontario Curriculum as a defined competency, a comprehensive elementary education must include the explicit and implicit means by which children are taught to decide independently. The wonderful aspect at this level of instruction is that one’s decisions in the classroom really do not have long lasting effects; they might be incorrect answers or missteps, but this is how students learn to think for themselves. Our Language Arts program at Northmount School operates under one such paradigm: gradual release. It is the transfer of literacy from direct instruction with students not possessing the text, to text based inquiry, to group work, and eventual independent reading, but with the intellectual tools to discern meaning and examine a book deeper than its base plot lines. The same concept is easily transferable to some of the social abilities, conventions, and graces being taught in the home and at school.
Decision making also rests heavily upon the child’s ability to cope with adversity and crisis. While those two terms might have an extreme tone; boredom and its close cousin frustration, are aspects of the human condition children need to learn to deal with more independently. What an adult might regard as a crisis can be far different than that which a child might perceive. The grand mission of social education is to bring reasonable parity between the perceptions and choices of children and that of adults. Children who lack the ability to think for themselves and know they can always get an immediate rectification to their “crisis” are going to incur difficulty as adolescents and certainly as adults. Decisiveness is a declining quality of the early 21st century, and as it casts its shadow of doubt, incompetence, and irresponsibility many persons are damaged in its wake. The origin of the scourge of indecisiveness is the ability to stand behind one’s convictions an d choices and to wield thought as a means of freedom.
Decisive individuals have shaped the course of human history. When done with the aid of a moral compass, the results are spectacular, as in the case of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. However, dithering and indecisive leadership has been the ruin of many states and organizations, take for example the sovereignty debt crisis of Europe. Those macro decisions all had their genesis in the education and experience of the people who made them. If we wish our children to be informed, moral, and decisive persons; we must allow them to fail, make their own decisions, teach them how to assess risk, and not shy away from situations that are not always guaranteed. The easiness of the escape hatch or clause has perpetuated a disturbing social ethos that suggests anything can be gotten out of or easily quit. Education and parenting that fosters independence as an end goal will undoubtedly reverse the trend. Being bored is not a prerequisite to quitting, but an invitation to cope and attain success.
Manfred J. von Vulte, Deputy Headmaster
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My Grade 8 son is always bored at school and hates going. I would love to see improvements
Great article! I was waiting for the next installment from this educator. I always learn a lot from his writing. Keep it up.