Kevin Hood Gary - Why Boredom Matters

Boredom is an enduring problem. In response, schools often do one or both of the following: First, they endorse what novelist Walker Percy describes as a “boredom avoidance scheme,” adopting new initiative

after initiative in the hope that boredom can be outrun altogether. Second, they compel students to accept boring situations as an inevitable part of life. Both strategies avoid serious reflection on this universal and troubling state of mind. In this book, Gary argues that schools should educate students on how to engage with boredom productively. Rather than being conditioned to avoid or blame boredom on something or someone else, students need to be given tools for dealing with their boredom. These tools provide them with internal resources that equip them to find worthwhile activities and practices to transform boredom into a more productive state of mind. This book addresses the ways students might gain these skills.

 

KEVIN HOOD GARY is a professor of education at Valparaiso University. His primary areas of interest include philosophy of education, ethics, and moral formation. He is a co-founder of the North American Association for Philosophy of Education, which provides a hospitable space for scholars working at the intersection of philosophy and educational thought. Kevin recently completed a four-year term as the Richard P. Baepler Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities at Valparaiso University.