This Is Boring

Joanne's quotes and commentary are ideal so I'll just lift them here. Go read all her posts, though--see blogroll at left.

Boredom is educational

Boring lessons prepare children for real life, say British teachers. The Independent reports:

Pupils needed to get used to the idea that life wasn't a constant "Disney ride", said delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference yesterday. "I don't have the energy to do all-singing all-dancing lessons every day, five-days-a-week, each term," supply maths teacher Zoe Fail explained, to loud cheers. "Children are not bored enough. They are over stimulated. Being bored encourages thinking skills and imaginative play."

I suspect Barry Williams, a lecturer at Hertford Regional College in Cambridgeshire, had his tongue in his cheek, when he defended his dullness:

"When they say to me: 'Mr Williams, that girl is looking out of the window staring at a tree,' I say: 'Do they not recognise the advanced stages of Zen Buddhism which I have brought into my lessons?' I am in fact producing adults who will be able to watch party political broadcasts."

Nobody gets through school without learning how to endure boredom.

I definitely agree that life isn't a Disney ride--and neither should school be. That's a statement, not an excuse.

And why do the British study "maths" while we in America study "math"? If they're shortening "mathematics", shouldn't they write "math's"?