Boredom Kills

My son, the research scientist, finds himself thinking alot about boredom nowadays. He traces his interest to an old slogan of mine, when I had The Games Preserve. The slogan: Boredom Kills, Games Preserve You - a slogan which became even more important to me when I discovered Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety.

He found this in an article called "Why it is important to reform schools."

"How might we describe the current (school) system? Cheap. Somewhat arbitrary. Not challenging. But the super-bogeyman who takes the blame, who makes educators tremble and students say 'eh, whatever,' is boredom. School is boring to those who are its most important members, the students.

"Boredom (bor'dem) n. the condition of being bored by something dull or uninteresting. Boredom is at once education's biggest problem, clearest symptom of illness, and the key to solving the puzzle. Boredom is the enemy of students and teachers alike. Boredom makes teachers cry, and students sleep. Boredom can make the best lesson plan look ugly. Boredom spreads like the plague. Boredom wants to get inside your head. Boredom hates puppies. Boredom kills brain cells. Boredom wants to sleep with your wife. Boredom causes terrorism. You get the point. Boredom is evil, and it haunts schools like an evil boring thingy, sparing no one in its path. If it wins, we all lose. Banish boredom, and our problems are solved."