Lazy Days of Summer

Remember the lazy days of summer as a child, where days were filled with adventures, discoveries, creations and daydreaming? There was a different rhythm to life found within this cycle of the summer season that asked us to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of our lives and to rejuvenate. And for a few precious months, time seemed to stand still, or at least slow down, as the days grew longer. As I sit here, at the beginning of July, I find myself longing for those lazy days of summer which is a cause for me, and I believe many of us, to PAUSE. Because the thing is, summer still comes around every year, we just no longer pay attention to the natural rhythm of nature that asks us to slow down and hit the refresh button for a month or two, or honestly, even a few days. Instead we, myself very much included, continue to try to keep going on the fast track of life, be that putting in additional hours at work or creating endless to do lists for projects to do in our homes or personal lives. How often do we really hit the PAUSE button to:

• Sit on our porches and watch, smell and listen to a beautiful summer rain;

• Lie on a blanket and cloud watch for recognizable objects or things;

• Or just sit, stare and do nothing?

And yet, it is during the times when we really slow down that we often realize a solution to a problem we have been grappling with; remember the word we had been trying to think of all day; observe something new in what we had come to think of as mundane; create something from the things around us; or we just discover a thought, an idea, an interest. It’s when we allow ourselves to just be that we recognize ourselves as biological individuals who need to balance times of intense activity with inactivity. And yet, we continue to defy our human nature with our 24/7 lifestyles, which makes me WONDER, how did we get to this point? And more personally, how did I get to the point at the end of a very hectic June and entering into July, the very month I loved as a child, stressed out over my own to-do lists and projects, when, what I know I most needed is to hit that PAUSE button and slow down.

My wondering took me to an interesting phenomenon in our nation. As I began my search into the lazy days of summer I discovered that July is considered anti-boredom month. This phenomenon was started by Alan Caruba in the 1980’s as an attempt to counter all of the above mentioned things I cherish about summer and more. Further searches took me to sites and links with phrases such as:

• “kill boredom”;

• “Stop moping around”;

• “Identify what makes us bored and find ways to combat it!”

• “Procrastinate and enjoy life at your own risk, the market never sleeps” (paraphrased Procrastination Risk

As a country we have gone to war with boredom, demonstrating a national state of thaasophobia, the fear of having nothing to do, the fear of boredom and being bored. We have turned a natural part of our biological rhythms and patterns into something to be avoided at all costs. This leads me to WONDER, what is the cost of anti-boredom to ourselves and children? Is boredom something we should combat or embrace? To counter the argument against boredom, I turn to others, such as those found below:

• “I’m a big believer in boredom. Boredom allows one to indulge in curiosity, and out of curiosity comes everything” Steve Jobs

• “Boredom is your window...once this window opens, don’t try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open” Joseph Brodsky

• “Slow is wonderful. Slow it thoughtful. Slow is sustainable and human and transformational” Elena Aguilar

• “Creativity is the residue of time wasted” Albert Einstein

• “The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings” Soren Kierkegaard

• “What if when you kill boredom, you also kill creativity?” Christopher Nolan

• “Take time to get bored” Austin Kleon

The above statements show that boredom is not a character flaw, but an essential component of who we are, despite a world with unlimited access and everything we need at our fingertips to distract us. In the words of Kleon, “the world is good at keeping you from knowing what’s going on in your mind.” (Kleon) There are so many benefits to ‘wasting time’ and so this summer I want to CREATE a counter revolution in defense of boredom. And this ‘revolution’ begins with me and my personal pursuit of ennui during these summer months and counter my own tendency to fall into what I believe is the more modern day anti-boredom concept, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), and engage in JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). The next couple of posts in July and August will be just this, my personal journey in pursuing boredom. I am prepared to “take time to mess around. Get lost. Wander. You never know where it’s going to lead you” (Kleon). I hope you join me as we begin to defend boredom for ourselves and begin to think about how this is relevant to education and young children.

2020 the year I rediscovered boredom

March 2020, the month the world screeched to a sudden halt and I found myself faced with the stark reality of what my life had become. It was a life that had increasingly become more 'face-paced' with every minute of the day filled with tasks, committee meetings and work, but increasingly more stressful, overwhelming, and joyless. My definition of productivity rested solely on the idea of 'busyness' as my life became increasingly devoid of space and time to be creative, generative, inventive, innovative, fruitful (just to name a few), all attributes of what it truly means to be productive. 2020 forced me to face the truth, my life had come to what I define as a 'hamster wheel' existence, constantly running and getting nowhere, professionally or personally. 2020 forced me (and the world) to slow down and hit the PAUSE button.

This PAUSE created time for mind wandering and space to work through ideas and generate projects that had long been placed on the backburner. Engagement in tasks I had long deemed frivolous, such as sketching and journaling, invigorated my day and renewed a sense of value and worth to my work. This slow down proved invaluable for me during a time of great social isolation and uncertainty. 2020 gave me time to WONDER and reflect on the current anti-boredom culture in which I had been personally and professionally caught up in. I began to reflect on my almost 20 years in the field of education where I daily witness the effects of the increasingly 'fast-paced' world on students, teachers and the educational system and where time has become a precious commodity. The increasingly frenetic pace of classrooms leaves teachers and students feeling depleted in the daily race to 'get it all in.' In the midst of the 2020 pandemic and quarantine where many were just anxious to get back to normal, I posed the question, 'What if we don't go back to normal?', 'what if things could be different?', 'what if things should be different' and how could we change the educational landscape for teachers and students if we reclaim time to PAUSE and WONDER?

And here is where I began to articulate a framework for the concept of Pedagogical Boredom and to CREATE this website meant to be an exchange of ideas around the transformational possibilities of boredom to education and the culture of doing 'more'. The relationship between boredom and creativity and innovative thinking is far from a new concept and this site is not the first to write and explore boredom. But it is my hope to CREATE a space that draws on what has come before, engages with professionals across disciplines and documents my personal pursuit of ennui.

And maybe, just maybe, help boredom make a comeback in a world greatly in need of slowing down.