Wishing You a Little Boredom over the Holidays

In the recent New York Times article “Let Kids Get Bored. It’s Good for Them.”, Catherine Pearson highlighted the importance of “humdrum” in a child’s life that spoke to me as an educator and parent. It brought me back to when my own children were very young, and as a working parent, I wanted to stuff every last minute of holiday cheer in the two-week school break. I actually had checklists of “things to do” (and accomplish).

As noted in the article, boredom can be informative; children have to get in touch with what they need which can lead to a sense of fulfillment they figure it out. In the book Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, author Carl Honoree notes, “With children, they need that space not to be entertained or distracted. What boredom does is take away the noise . . . and leave them with space to think deeply, invent their own game, and create their own distraction.” A child of any age needs downtime to process.

When I was observing a classroom recently, a preschooler said to his teacher, “I don’t know what to do now.” Not running to the child’s rescue, the teacher wisely pointed out, “I know you’ll find something.”  And after a bit of sampling at several learning centers, he settled in with a great focus on arranging stones in patterns of various colors and sizes.

 As we approach the next two weeks, I wish for you and your loved ones a bit of boredom. A time to reflect, and think perhaps more clearly and creatively, with good measures of downtime, quiet, and peace. 

by Alison Fleming, Head of School