Joe Pitti, on why overstimulation is a bad thing for kids’ imaginations. I remember feeling bored a lot when I was little, at least enough to stage home plays and write notebooks full of stories and invent several other worlds to disappear into. His whole post on “cultivating creative kids” brings up some interesting ideas. We do know that video games and the internet and DVR are allowing children to think faster and make more connections (thank Steven Johnson for that info), and maybe even better, in a neurotransmitter sense. But what about the slow discoveries that come with nothing but hours to fill, dreaming and pretending?
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One thing I do know is that boredom, like necessity is the mother of invention. Certainly, much of what I produced while a bored child was destructive as much as it was constructive but there is little gained and learned in the absence of taking that risk.
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