Boredom Effect Essay

476 Words2 Pages
Let There be Boredom In Ellen Ruppel Shell’s “The Boredom Effect,” Shell begins by stating how back in her day parents weren’t uptight about their children’s recreational time, “Back then, parents pretty much stayed out of children’s business, which is to say they stayed out of our play.” As a writer for the New York Times, Shell has dealt with a variety of topics, one relating to children and their right to play. Ann O’Bar, president of the American Association on the Child’s Right to Play told the New York Times: “There’s nothing wrong with letting children be bored. Boredom leads to exploration which leads to creativity.” Shell decided to test this statement out for herself. On a sunny spring day, Shells’ eight year old daughter, Joanna, was very bored. Shell decided to let her find something to do outdoors instead of assigning her a task. At the beginning Joanna threw the typical tantrum and out of defiance, went outside barefoot. Shell stared at her from the window as Joanna twisted on the swing and spun like a tornado, her attention was quickly switched, she proceeds to climbing the monkey bars and begins to spy on the neighbor until a squirrel caught her eye and she watched it like a hawk, she concluded her play time by drowning her stuffed armadillo and bringing it back to life. Shell then concludes that “It seems to me that we’ve lost trust in our kids. We don’t believe that they can navigate the world, so we try to navigate it for them.” Shell then explains that it seems that kids are adjusting to this structured type of play, asking about rules before playing a game, steering themselves away from that spontaneous type of play. Parents tend to load kids up with games, sports, and clubs, just so they can feel at ease with themselves by keeping
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