Opportunity Knocks: Learning Lessons from Boredom

Are you kids bored? That's good. Don't give them a screen to occupy their time. Give them the gift of boredom. Whether they are bored in their classrooms, at home or when they visit their grandparents, embrace it. There was a time when I tried to protect my children from boredom, but this year, we are using boredom as a lesson in life and an opportunity to grow. Technology has put an end to periods of inactivity in our kids' lives, which means that much of the creative thoughts that go through a child's mind during periods of quiet and inactivity, have disappeared. Those brilliant, Aha moments or I've got it! moments will become dinosaurs if we put a screen in front of our children who complain, I'm bored. Alex complains of boredom a lot, especially in terms of school. He is gifted in many ways, and gifted children find the classroom extremely boring because of its rigidity. With the focus on test scores in public schools and the resulting lack of creative teaching in so many classrooms, your child may feel the same. But rather than run out the door with your child, talk to him or her about using boredom. If you need inspiration, look to some of the greatest minds on earth. Einstein, for example, was bored in school. In fact, he was kicked out because he asked too many questions and upset his teacher who didn't know the answers. But during those long periods of boredom in school, he thought. Alex has a tendency to drift off into deep thought. A good teacher will realize he is bored. She might have the insight to ask him what he is pondering. If she did, she would find some exceptional discoveries. At breakfast the other day, he was deep in thought. I asked him what was on his mind. He said he was trying to devise an instrument that could do a blood test by simply reading blood from outside the skin. In other words, an instrument that would prevent the need for a painful needle and blood draw. He was inspired by a recent article we read in the New Yorker about $1 paper microscopes that are changing science, particularly in the third world. And he was inspired because he needs to have his blood drawn again this month, a painful and dreaded trip to the doctor. So, let your kids be bored. Explain to them how they might embrace that time. Ask them what they are dreaming up when they are drifting off in thought. Don't be surprised if they lose interest in screens.