Context: I’m pursuing a WSQ Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education (DACE). As part of my first module, CM1: Develop Practice Through Reflection (RP), I’m keeping an online journal of my reflections with artifacts (pictures). Hope it works out!
I’m easily bored. I dislike classes where the trainer proceeds at a snail’s pace because it means I have to wait, do nothing productive, and face ennui.
Mostly, this is because I don’t like to waste time, especially if the courses are self-funded. After all, I put aside the time to attend this course, and it should be a fruitful and productive experience. It also follows that when I conduct classes, I try my best to make it as fun and interactive as possible. Unless there’s a solo assignment to be completed that requires learners to work in silence, there’s rarely a quiet moment in my classes.
But something that our trainer, Dr H, said today (7 Nov), made me rethink this assumption. She said “boredom is good”. This is in context of course – that boredom for children can cultivate good qualities in them, such as patience and the ability to be introspective. That was something that was alien to me and I tried to process this new idea.
Dr H was teaching us about reflective practice. And she had earlier made us think about how some of us were already doing some form of reflective practice – I did a nightly gratitude journal and my classmate, I, would review the day’s events in a mobile free environment at night. One thing we had in common was that we needed a quiet, conducive space to do it – and that’s something that’s really rare in most classes, but essential if one wanted to teach students mindfulness and reflectiveness.
That’s when I realised that I had equated boredom with wasting time. But what Dr H meant about boredom was more along the lines of patience and mindfulness. For children, who have little life experience, patience and mindfulness are skills that need to be taught. And for that to happen, children need to be “bored” – they need to know how to cope fruitfully with periods of silence. It was another way to frame things, another lens that I had not considered before.
My other classmate, P, also reaffirmed this need for children to learn reflectiveness. She shared that her child had learnt how to do reflections in school – but it amounted to just “answering questions on a worksheet”. After learning about reflective practice in class, she used the learner’s guide to clarify her child’s understanding of reflectiveness.
I guess boredom is good after all – in context, and when it’s intentional and directed. I will aspire to build in periods of “boredom” for my younger learners, and also to find a way to introduce this idea in a palatable way to my adult learners. Since adult learners equate lesson time to productivity (like myself), I will need to think of a way to encourage reflectiveness, without making it seem like a waste of time.
So yes, I wrote down that it’s good to be bored – but there’s a whole lot more to it there than meets the eye.
This is an original article on marcusgohmarcusgoh.com.
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I’m an independent scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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