“Time for Boredom Practice” — Teacher Tries to Defeat iPad Kid Syndrome With New Classroom Technique

An educator who goes by Miss Kidd (@thenewkiddinator) on TikTok posted a new classroom mental training exercise she wants her students to engage in: actively being bored.

Featuring a comment by another user on the application (they go by @Goopymobbb), Anna recorded her attempt at this exercise in a TikTok that's accrued over 366,000 views on the popular social media application.

Goopy writes: "I practice being bored with mine. I give them nothing to do, set the expectation that there's no talking for a set amount of minutes (3–5), put a timer on, tell them it's time for boredom practice."

Anna can be seen standing up in her video at the start of the boredom practice drill for her students. "We're gonna try something new today. OK? Miss Kidd is going to teach you how to be bored," she announces to the students.

She explained the point behind the lesson to her students: "Sometimes in life, you don't get to do fun things. Right, like, standing in line at a grocery store. Or maybe you think social studies is boring. You still need to have the self control to be able to listen. And relax your body, and just focus on your brain."

"Here's the deal: We're gonna start with a small amount of time. And then it's going to increase throughout the week. I'm gonna give you three minutes."

Miss Kidd then gave a breakdown of what she expects from her students during the lesson. "And in those three minutes what you're gonna do is you're gonna go sit at your spot and you're gonna do absolutely nothing."

The point of the lesson, she detailed, is that the boredom lesson is to practice their mental endurance for school work.

"You can put your head down if you want. You can sit and stare off into space, you can sing a song in your head. Your mouth is not moving."

The educator continued: "You are sitting there, being bored, for three minutes. OK, 'cause we need to build up our stamina for school right now. And some of us can't last 30 seconds. Or even a sentence right now. Before you've tuned Miss Kidd out."

"And what's your job at school?" she asks her students. They respond with, "to learn."

"OK, what's my job?" she asks them. "To teach!" they emphatically respond.

"Right, can I teach you if you tune me out?" she poses to them.

"No!" they tell her.

"No, so we both need to work on this," she tells them towards the end of the video. "OK? We're gonna do this right now and then we'll finish social studies. Go to your spot," she says, motioning with her arms as the video comes to a close.

Throngs of TikTokers responded to the post with varying opinions. There was one educator who left a comment on the post who said that while they could see the merit of the exercise and seemed to state that they would attempt to do it themselves, they still think it's a sorry state of affairs for today's kids in the classroom if they're unable to sit still for minutes at a time.

"As a teacher, I know this is needed, but my god, it's such a sad time where kids cannot even sit for five minutes," they wrote.

Another person replied that parents should be more willing to allow their children to be bored, and that would go a long way with kids' behavior.

"I wish more parents would do this instead of giving their kid the iPad. I have multiple kids who CANNOT sustain attention, even for interactive, fun things, until I turn on a screen."

And then there was someone else who stated that they didn't necessarily view the exercise as one steeped in allowing people to be bored. Rather, it was giving someone the opportunity to work their minds in order to keep themselves entertained.

"I frame it less as 'being bored' and more as 'not being actively entertained.' Entertain yourself in your brain."

Other people argued that allowing oneself to be bored is a vital tool for mental development. Because it's in boredom that some truly great ideas can flourish. Plus, it teaches people to be more self-sufficient, mentally.