I’m Bored…or Not
“I’m bored!” If I had a dime for every parent who told me his or her son or daughter needed to be moved to a different classroom because his or her child was bored and not being challenged”, I would be a very wealthy man. In my experience, rarely, if ever, is challenge the issue.
There is a big difference between challenge and interest. I can give a student a calculus problem, which is challenging, but if he or she would rather be hunting for a rare Pokemon in the Walmart parking lot, he or she may say, “I’m bored”, which really means, “This isn’t fun. I want to do something else”.
Perhaps the real issue here is our children’s insatiable need to be interested in a task in order to complete it. Having grown up in a culture of instant gratification, children seem to only attend to high interest tasks. Unfortunately, in the real world, many mundane tasks must be completed. [as evidenced by the dirty dishes sitting in my kitchen sink…] The reality is sometimes we all have to do things we don’t like or want to do.
So the next time your child tells you he or she is bored, do not feed the beast by fanning it with attention. Let your child work through the problem independently and allow him or her the opportunity to learn a critical life skill in the process.