Inspired last year by an incredibly boring meeting at work, I chose a writing topic to implement this year: boredom. We all have experienced it, especially as students, so I thought it'd be fun to see how the kids view it. I explained to my two 6th grade classes how I came up with the idea, and then we had a 3-minute period to sit in our chairs (myself included), doing absolutely nothing. We all got restless pretty fast, but I told them beforehand to really experience the boredom, to note what they saw, heard, felt, thought about, and so forth. Below, I've typed up some of my favorite responses. (I've edited them for minor errors, but otherwise, the words are the kids'!) Enjoy how 6th experience and explain boredom!!
Student #1:
Because of boredom, I don't believe utopias exist anymore. Nowadays, I think of boredom as the worst type of dystopia. Boredom wipes out happiness, humor, and other various types of things that I used to think were utopias.
Life is the most boring thing -ever- to do. Doing nothing feels like a day with no freedom. It feels like being crushed by boredom when I became bored after playing around. Not even the strongest type of happiness, such as love, can stand a chance against boredom. Even homework is less boring!
In my opinion, everything is boring, like life, work, and death. My last words will probably be, "This is so boring." Even the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has information about being bored of life, as well as aliens creating super-ultra computers which can solve the meaning of the life, the universe, and everything (in the book).
I feel like those aliens who are so bored of life, and I desperately want the answer of life, the universe, and everything. When I look at dead animals and dead insects, I envy them because they can no longer feel pain and boredom in their minds anymore.
I think that people should find the answer to life so that I can find a way to not be bored, as well as a way to stop boredom (excluding dying).
(me: GEEEZ!! Ok, onto the next one!)
Student #2:
Student #2:
Oh, come on. Class again? Well, at least this is the last class of the day. The teacher babbles intermittently over the kids chatting. I stare at a butterfly's shadow over the blinds. I cover my face with my chubby hands. I hate the irritating scent of eraser rubber. I put my hands up and yawn. I feel a pinch on my back. The boys behind me poked me with a pencil! It stung like a thousand needles flying to my backbone. I feel so sleepy that I almost fall asleep. I hate class so much... I'm only waiting for recess.
( me: Nice details, buddy!! Here's another: )
Student #3:
Boredom is almost half my school life. I realized that my finger nails are extremely short and ugly. [picture included] It also hurts sometimes because they are so short. Also, I found that my finger nails have little scratches on them.
Sometimes Ms. Anderson's hair looks olive green in the sunlight (no offense!). =P Also, the skeleton on her bracelet looks very scary and realistic.
I wonder if I yelled some random word in this silence if it would be extremely embarrassing. I also imagined me being in a world with nothing to do, like now. That would be horrible.
I saw Sohee* listening to her watch. I heard little movements of people...
(me: *Names have been changed to protect the students' identity. Gotta love the honesty of our writers, though! And finally, my favorite one from who will hopefully be a future author...)
Student #4:
When is this going to end? I'm sitting on my chair, at my desk in English class, in which we're assigned absolute silence for 3 minutes to experience boredom. Which is exactly what I feel: utterly and undoubtedly bored out of my mind. I've never had an assignment quite as random, yet so peculiar as this one... until now.
Speaking of random, I can see and hear random things occurring. Next to me, Belle* and Julie* are both staring at their notebooks and looking bored. Someone behind me yawns. Another person, somewhat southwest of me, drops his/her eraser.
In the background, I can hear Ms. C's faint voice explaining inequalities to another class; outside the window, I can hear Mr. H blowing his whistle, coaching the soccer game. Someone walks down the hallway in front of our classroom, then vanishes behind the door.
Suddenly, my right hand feels all weary and heavy. I look at it. I get a small shock when I realize that I'm tapping my finger; I didn't even do it of my own volition. I stop tapping it and slowly put my dead down to the desk. Through my dark curtain of hair, I an see slivers of light glimpsing through my hair as I move my head ever so slightly.
Then, like a siren through perfect silence, Ms. Anderson's voice announces that time is up. Finally! I raise my head up, brush the hair out of my face, and smile at the non-boringness of it all. I'm glad that it's finally over, because those 3 minutes were the most boring moments of my life! All I can hope for is that the day won't get any more, not the most minuscule bit, boring that it was currently.
(me: AWESOME!! I love reading the awesome writing of 11-year-olds!!) :)
Those are really great writing samples; what a unique exercise to take middle schoolers through! I wonder how adults would react. Probably not so eloquently; most would probably just spend the 3 minutes making to-do lists of chores, or something equally dull and adult. Adults, on the whole, tend to observe less about their surroundings, really, even when instructed to just sit and observe the quiet moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments, Iss! :) I was stoked about the kids' writing before I even assigned the work; it just seemed like something they all experienced so often. I like giving them to be a chance to be the experts when possible. Some of the read-alouds after were also hilarious; I think this was a worthwhile thing to do with a class of restless little ones. :)
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