Why Boredom Matters
Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Life

Boredom is an enduring and troublesome problem. This book explores the ways that teachers can support students in their struggle with boredom.

Kevin Hood Gary (Author)

9781108813921, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 August 2022

200 pages
21.5 x 13.9 x 0.9 cm, 0.21 kg

'Why Boredom Matters is one of those delightful books in which the author seamlessly draws from thinkers from across multiple disciplines such as education, theology, philosophy, literature, and pop culture. Søren Kierkegaard, Walker Percy, David Wallace Foster, Leo Tolstoy, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Dewey, Albert Bormann, Simone Weil, Josef Pieper, St. Benedict, Groundhog Day, and The Karate Kid all contribute to a richer understanding of boredom.' Elizabeth Amato, Law & Liberty

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.

Introduction
1. The morality of boredom and a brief history of leisure
2. The problem of boredom
3. Despair: The source of boredom
4. Leisure: A cure for boredom
5. The art of leisure
6. Cultivating leisure
Epilogue: Coda on the self at leisure
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Educational strategies & policy [JNF], Educational psychology [JNC]