Reply to Who thinks it is ridiculous when someone says his/her child is bored in school?

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Reply to "Who thinks it is ridiculous when someone says his/her child is bored in school?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I worry about the posts that say that school should be wall-to-wall fun. We're basically creating a generation of kids who need to have their entertainment supplied by video games, hovering parents and now, some of you apparently think, the schools. This is not going to create functional adults -- even in the 1%.

A little boredom in school is fine. In fact, it can spur kids -- both normal kids and the geniuses -- to invent mental and other ways to cope. Obviously nobody supports constant worksheets, or classrooms where there is no tolerance for non-disruptive things like doodling. But those are the extremes. I tend to doubt when I hear a parent going on about how some school is being cruel to some brilliant kid. For example, I heard of one extreme case in my kid's magnet where a mom was outraged that her too-cool-for-school kid wasn't allowed to read novels in science class. Really, there are limits to how much teachers can allow while maintaining control of the class. Nobody is such a special snowflake they should be allowed to set an example for everyone else to ignore the teacher too, or allowed to cause disruption. [/quote]

I think the opposite of boring in the school context is not fun. I have a huge problem with the idea that schools have to be "fun." I think most posters here using boring as synonymous to not challenging. I don't find your extreme example all that extreme either. Reading quietly is not that disruptive. On the other hand, you wonder about how a science class could be so boring. I can see reading or math when they cover really familiar materials. Science, the teachers can be a bit more creative, you would think. [/quote]

My kid actually took the science class in question and it wasn't boring. It's in a magnet program and school districts tend to put great, creative teachers in these programs. Given that DC spent many nights on college websites doing the required readings, it probably also wasn't material most kids were already familiar with.

I posted earlier to say that most bright kids can (and have a need to) figure out how to banish boredom, but that some kids may lack the motivation or persistence to figure out ways. I don't know whether persistence and motivation are more innate or more learned. I guess I do feel strongly that, wherever motivation and persistence come from, these -- and creativity -- aren't going to be nurtured if mom swoops in at the first sign that Snowflake isn't 100% engaged by what's placed right under his nose in the classroom. [/quote]

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