Description: 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 new initiative in the hope that boredom can be outrun altogether, or 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.
Brief description: 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 co-founder of the North American Association for Philosophy of Education (https: //www.naape.org/), 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. He is currently a Pedagogy Fellow with the Pedagogy of Christ & Being Human project, sponsored by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
Review Quotes: 'Gary's book served as an exercise and an apprenticeship in leisure that helped me to practice it as I read and has kept me inspired ... The book is focused yet full of quite a lot of ideas and it never feels rushed. Gary moves between a broad range of thinkers from different disciplines with a care and attentiveness that introduces me as a reader to someone and their ideas in a manner that allows me to really talk with them.' Cara Furman, Studies in Philosophy and Education