Though it may sometimes be true that ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’, boredom and stopping still are powerful and necessary gaps in our lives. A simple roundup of the day turned into a philosophical discussion with a thirteen year old a couple of days ago.
Unprompted, his thoughts on boredom really surprised me. I expected him to download a torrent of disappointments - what things hadn’t been done, why he hadn’t been taken somewhere, but instead the summary was this. It is the result you hope for but never sure you will get rewarded with. Children constantly provided with solutions, external stimulation and narrow entry points to using their imagination by linking to well known characters (‘disney-fication’) could find their own creative capacity gets stifled. That’s not to say all the outcomes are perfect, but that they are conjured up from inside.
“I know I’ve been offered to go places and do things. Sometimes I get really cross with myself when I haven’t done things - things I should have done. Then I get really bored, but I’m really glad I get the chance to go through that because it makes me think what to do next. I get my most imaginative ideas then and it makes me excited. It makes me want to get things out and start making or sketching”.
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