Boredom is never an excuse for bad behavior. Being bored does not get you off the hook for rudeness or worse. If bored, see it as an opportunity to figure out why. In addition, bear in mind that many excellent life habits are established through repetition and plodding along.
Boredom should not be immediately equated with “dumbed-down” curriculum and instruction. Applied learning happens in peaks and valleys. Practicing almost anything can feel boring, at times. It is not “too easy” if it is not yet automatic. Practice at a lower level–solving single-variable equations, reading a young adult novel, singing with a less-experienced choir, playing soccer with younger players–can also be very pleasurable. As a music teacher, try to have music in the folder that was over students’ heads as well as rip-through-it simple.
Buying into kids’ boredom as valid reason for disconnecting or misbehaving corresponds to another fallacy: the idea that “good” teachers should make every lesson novel and entertaining to kids. True, there is a strong acting/entertainment factor in dynamic teaching. Great teaching should inspire learning through more than attention grabbing, however. Reminder: the person who does the–hard and occasionally monotonous–work of learning is the student. It does not matter how many white-lab-coat chemical explosions they witness, or if their fifth grade teacher dresses up like Amelia Earhart–there is no learning without diligent effort on the part of the child.
Boredom is not a sign of giftedness. A few hundred parents (and teachers) in the Gifted/Talented community by suggested that if their children were truly gifted they will find ways to amuse themselves in so-called boring classes. Boredom and giftedness are two separate things. There should have challenging curriculum and instruction for very capable students–but not because boredom.
“Boredom” should not be a reason to assert that kids should never have to wait for other children to catch up. Children consistently learning at the wrong level (both too low and too high) will be vulnerable to disengagement, of course. However, having to wait until the class has solidified a concept before moving ahead is not a crisis. Clichéd but true–education is a journey, not a race. Sometimes, teachers are leading the pack. Other times, are not. There are benefits to learning in a cooperative group, the primary one being developing the skill of acceptance and appreciation for the viewpoints and capabilities of other human beings.
Boredom is merely lack of engagement, a two-way street in terms of responsibility. Are there boring classrooms? Yes. There are boring drills, boring lectures, boring warm-ups–and any number of boring instructional strategies (i.e., worked examples in mathematics) that yield some learning benefits. Daily practice of musical scales is not much fun, but it is an enormously effective technique-builder. Brushing your teeth is boring, too, but that does not mean you should stop.
Boredom can be cured–by students. The most useful thing parents, teachers (and students) can do to prevent genuine boredom is devise individual strategies to extend learning– read a different book, tackle a more challenging solo, and ask for harder problems or other enrichments. Anyone who has ever leafed through a well-used textbook knows that some kids know how to doodle their way to amusement. Tell kids to own their boredom and fix it.
Suggestions to mitigate boredom OK, but be fair to teachers who are coping with an overstuffed curriculum, super-sized classes and the threat of test data being used to judge them as professionals. Many teachers would choose “boring/retain job” over “excitingly creative/scores tank.” One of the most common complaints from veteran teachers these days has to give up well-polished, sure-fire lesson plans in favor of someone else’s policy conception of what is most important.
By: Russell A. Llamzon | Master Teacher I | Bilolo Elementary School | Orion, Bataan
