Summary Of Doing Nothing Is Something By Anna Quindlen

“In Praise of Boredom” by Ellen Ruppel Shell shows that nowadays parents are putting too much pressure on their children, and they aren’t letting them be a kid and have free time. Children are missing out on having fun during free time and having an imagination. When children aren’t forced to be in activities, they become creative in their free time. Children develop imaginations when they are by themselves and not forced to do activities with other children.

Before my child study, I had a feeling that advanced students were not being adequately challenged at my school; however, I completely underestimated the degree of boredom these students experience. It was very eye-opening to observe how quickly Kayson completed his classwork and then the amount of time he spent engaged in non-academic activities. Kayson often spent as much of 20 minutes engaged in non-academic conversations and “free drawing” because he completed his work so much quicker than the other students in the classroom. Any behavioral issues that Kayson had were attributed to his lack of boredom in the classroom. When he was scolded for talking with other students during work time, it was usually due to the fact that he finished early and did not have anything else to do.

In the essay "Don't Just Stand There", Diana Cole explains her views on speaking up against prejudice and offensive jokes or phrases. Cole's essay explains how she believes that speaking out against prejudice always makes a differences, even if it is not an immediate one. Cole explains the proper ways of speaking up, stating that lashing out usually ends badly but remaining calm can put a person in control. Cole discusses the proper way to respond to something offensive, how to handle speaking to an unresponsive person, how to handle peer pressure, and the best way to go about dealing with the prejudice of a superior. In Abigail's opinion, Cole's views on how best to deal with offensive comments are very wise. In Abigail's opinion, remaining

This quote shows the kids in Fahrenheit 451, do not ever have free time to think about what to do. The kids are scheduled from one class to the next and they do not even ask questions, proving when kids are given the opportunity to not come up with an activity on their own they will take it and just do what others tell them. I believe that kids should have free time where they have to find something to do otherwise our world will end up like Fahrenheit 451, where they will not have to come up with things to do and they wont know how when the opportunity is given to

In “Against School”, Gatto told the readers about the boredom in the schools through the teachers because the students were as bored as they, the teacher, were. In school, boredom strikes amongst both teachers and students. Gatto said it best when he stated, “Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were as every bit of bored as they were.” (Gatto, page 608). Most students do not want to be at school anyways so therefore, boring school work, unprepared teachers, and pure lecture class time would not help the matter. This next quote can still relate to today’s society, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteacher, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.” (Gatto, page 608). When the teacher comes unprepared with a mindset of boredom then nothing will ever change. Although a teacher may have a routine for teaching , because they have taught the same material for years, they should never just recite it. The students have not heard this, because it is new information for

There is no basis in the belief that children are “naturally curious” and that given a freedom-based education they will be productive (Koonce, 2015,

Anna Quindlen describes in the essay "Abortion is too Complex to Feel one Way About" the different situation that we as a human race are put in everyday. She talks about the topic of abortion in a way that one feels they have had to make the decision of whether or not a person is pro-choice or pro-life. She uses references that are of different personal experiences in the essay that are vital to the audience. Quindlen is writing to state her point that one should never put their self in this situation because one should take the proper responsibility. In this paper you will read about the conflict with abortion and what Quindlen thinks about this issue.

In her essay “Doing Nothing Is Something,” Anna Quindlen states that our imagination is created when we are doing nothing. When our mind is not distracted, we take time to ponder upon thoughts. Children’s unlimited usage of technology takes away key aspects of a child’s development. Because children become engrossed in technology, they lose the ability to form important bonds and lose childhood experiences that cannot be replaced, but on the other hand we do have to recognize technology plays an important role in this and future generations.

The crisis of boredom is a topic explored by Douglas Todd, the religion and ethics writer for the Vancouver Sun, in “Beware the Boredom Boom” he states that chronic boredom is a matter to be concerned about as it raises” “complex questions about the human condition.” He supports this matter by giving examples of published authors and their works about boredom. He points out that despite having many things to fill our time with, we are still looking for more novel things to do to keep our attention. He explains that almost three out of four North Americans say they crave more novelty in their lives and there are sixty nine percent of people that agree with this. He notices that it isn’t just students and seniors

Gatto starts his paper by addressing the problem of boredom in public schools; something anyone who has ever attended a public school can attest to. Because the majority of his audience would already agree with this statement, Gatto can then effectively make a claim about why he thinks students and teachers are so bored without having to explain the context of that claim. He believes that we are all to blame for school boredom, and supports this with a personal story about his grandfather. While it can be difficult to use personal narrative to support an argument, here it works efficiently because it is the common trope of a wise old man giving life advice, making this stranger seem more reliable. However, Gatto then seems to leave this argument of being bored behind, not referring it for the rest of his essay. It functions as a good hook to get the attention of his audience, but children and teachers being bored alone is not a sufficient argument for

‘The games, rhymes and stories might have been found in anywhere in Britain. The only differences lie in the local names ad rules for games.’ (Opie,1993,pg. VII) Based on these findings they believed that childhood is far from disappearing. Peter and Iona Opie argue that children have their own separate culture that is not connected with the adult’s culture. For example, ‘Children also create pretending games, using ingredients from life, books, or television programmes… Minor traditional games are the stand-bys of the playground: Trains, Horses, Chiggy-Backs…’ (Opie,1993,pg.12). This shows that children are not like adults; they have their own set of mind and play their own games that adults would not understand meaning that childhood may not be disappearing. This evidence also contradicts Postman’s argument as it shows that childhood has not changed and it is the same as it has always been. Even though this evidence can provide us information on how children may act, a criticism of this research is that it could be considered as aged biased, Peter and Iona Opie only looks at children in primary school and does not consider children under the age of 7 or over the age of 10 meaning that findings cannot be generalised to over age

"Play that is initiated and directed by children and that bubbles up from within the child rather than being imposed by adults is disappearing from our landscape of childhood. There are many reasons for this, such as long hours spent in front of a TV, fear of "stranger danger" when outside." (Exchange Every Day, 2009)

Boredom is good for our lives and we need to embrace it. It's a natural part of life and we shouldn't try to avoid it. It helps strengthen our brain's network system's that allows us to do the things we want. People need to realize that boredom is important and we shouldn't get rid of it. Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he was just sitting under an apple tree, watching apples fall. Great things can come from boredom. Boredom is a very important aspect in

Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job is to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play (CHETNA). Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child (Ginsburg). Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to

“For young children, there is no distinction between play and learning; they are one and the same. Playing is a priority in early childhood, yet not all play is the same” (Butler, 2008, p. 1). Since the beginning of mankind children have imitated adults and learned to survive through play. Evidence of this includes toys and board games from 6,000 years ago that have been found in Egypt and Asia (Dollinger, 2000). In the last two centuries, child’s play has been observed and studied by theorists and recognized as an important tool for adult life. Three theorists that studied children and spent their lives researching how children develop were Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. These theorists agreed that from the time a child is