A child in nature, possibly bored
Two bits of recent moaning:
- On Today (12th August),
there was a discussion about the death of boredom. Editor of Psychologies,
Louise Chunn, argued that because children are no longer bored much of the
time, they don’t have chance to think creatively. When children have
literally nothing to do, argued Chunn, then they get their best ideas.
Writer, Tim Lott suggested that this was a load of old rot, that Louise
was confusing boredom with mediation and that, far from being a stimulus
to creativity, boredom was” bloody awful’.
- In Tuesday’s Guardian, Jon Henley’s article,
“Nature’s lost generation” argued that children are no longer playing
outside and, as a result, are not only obese, but failing to solve problems,
lacking in focus and self- discipline and, what was it, oh yes, failing to
create their own “treasured memories” of childhood.
I’m
a bit fed up with these kind of “our childhood was so much better” lines
peddled by many forty-somethings. They go along with stories about how none of
our children can read and how boys are failing at everything. I think I’m in a
minority as there are tons of “I couldn’t agree more” comments on the
Guardian’s site in response to Henley’s piece, but, regardless of that, here
are my non-researched, top of the head, mixing too many things together, moans of response.
- Shut up!
- Leave children alone to have the kind of
childhood that is of their time (i.e. now). This is hard to do, but here
are some useful things to remember:
a) the Famous Five never existed and,
b) even if they had, the style of parenting modelling by
the Kirrins is at best, quirky, at worst, a paralysing mixture of neglect and
emotional abuse.
c) Sundays in the 1970s were unbelievably tedious, to
quote Tim Lott, like being struck over the head by a mallet.
d) According to Henley, 21% of children have never
visited a farm and 20% have never climbed a tree, But that means 79% and 80%
have done those things. That seems like a lot of children. Was there a time
when more than 79% children had visited farms? My son spent a whole week on a
farm earlier this year, with his inner-city, nature-deprived school mates. He
delivered a lamb, faced down a massive pig, and wheeled barrows and barrows of
manure around the place. I never did any of those things. And perhaps 20% of
kids just don’t want climb trees.
- Is the issue that a group of pretty privileged,
Boden-clad children spend too much time doing a whole range of pretty
interesting things and thus are not bored? Because if it is, that’s not
what I’d call a problem. Anyone who’s been to a town centre or sat on a
village green over the summer will have seen plenty of genuinely bored
youngsters who don’t have the same options and for whom boredom is perhaps
a genuine problem. But I don’t think these are the children Chunn is
talking about.
- And here’s my personal difficulty. I live in a
city, in a flat. If I tell my bored ten year old, in the words of Louise
Chunn, to “go out and find something to do” and, in the spirit of Jon
Henley, I don’t go with him so that he can “mediate his own experience”,
that leaves him playing in our communal garden, where he’s shouted at by
people who have not read, or don’t care about the “growing body of
evidence” that shows children will all go down the pan if they don’t play
in nature, or he’s standing on street corners where he goes from a child
exploring the world to a youth out to ruin the lives of all good
people. Not quite sure what
I’m supposed to do, aside from move.
- And, just to point out, none of this leaves him
obese, failing to take risks, blah, blah.
- Times change. What we had isn’t necessarily
better; it’s just different.
- Can you really get away with saying that "only boring people are bored"?
- Hey, journalist, leave those kids alone.
We have started positive reinforcement with the kids. They are bucking against it, but all proudly display their chore charts and bug us to mark off the completed items.
Posted by: Parenting | August 21, 2010 at 08:29 PM