Down time

I saw a troubling article in the Boston Globe this morning on the subject of Covid19.  The author noted, not unfairly, “this isn’t an emergency anymore - it’s the long term reality”.  A deadly virus has infected our population, and it’s going to be with us for a very long time.  So, facing that depressing fact squarely, can we not take a solid look at education and make a plan that centers not on the convenience of the system but on the needs of the child?

Our children may be finding themselves at home, with or without parents, with the luxury of massive amounts of time on their hands.  Remember the child development articles decrying how kids had too much of their time regulated?  Remember how they need to be bored to force their brains to create learning opportunities and foster their imaginations?  Once the “core academics” of today’s lesson, at school or at home, are learned and dealt with can the child not be encouraged to study and explore their own interests?  Can they not be left alone and “unentertained” long enough to be able to seek out those interests within themselves?

Most of us grab on to an interest by accident.  I developed a very active interest in birds as a child through a chance encounter with a cereal box.  My skill in training animals came through long, solo afternoon walks through our neighborhood meeting and greeting my neighbor’s pets.  My love of music and storytelling through rainy days in the Kelp Shed, the local community hall on the island.  My love of plants through taking seeds apart and looking, just looking, at the not quite formed seedling within.  None of these interests which have informed and enriched my life were taught to me at school.  They all sprung from chance encounters and were nurtured by free time.

Academics are important.  None of the self-directed research that has guide my life would have been possible had not patient teachers taught me to read.  We certainly cannot raise worthy citizens if they don’t know the history of this country and the world.  Nor can critical thinking be taught in a vacuum.  But as long as this virus haunts us, as long as schooling and public assemblies of any kind are riddled with an unease that forbids consistency, let us at least give our children, and ourselves, the freedom to be bored, and with it the play time, the books, the computer, the encouragement, the whatever it takes to fill that boredom with self-directed learning.