Bored out of Their Minds a LOOK at WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — and WHY IT MATTERS
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WINTER 2017 HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE Bored Out of Their Minds A LOOK AT WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — AND WHY IT MATTERS HED03-FOB-Cover.indd 1 12/20/16 9:47 PM Harvard Ed. Winter 2017 WINTER 2017 HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE Features ContentsWinter 2017 Bored Out of Their Minds A LOOK AT WHY STUDENTS GET INCREASINGLY BORED AS THEY GET OLDER — AND WHY IT MATTERS HED03-FOB-Cover.indd 1 12/20/16 9:47 PM WINTER 2017 � ISSUE N 156 Editor in Chief Lory Hough [email protected] Creative Director, Ed. Patrick Mitchell MODUS OPERANDI DESIGN WWW.MODUSOP.NET Assistant Dean of Communications Michael Rodman 18 [email protected] Bored Out of Their Minds Contributing Writers Andrew Bauld, Ed.M.’16 A look at why students get increasingly bored as Zachary Jason they get older — and why it matters. Brendan Pelsue STORY BY ZACHARY JASON Illustrators Greg Clarke Todd Detwiler Ben Kirchner Riccardo Vecchio Photographers Jill Anderson Jesse Burke Jonathan Kozowyk Tim Llewellyn Ekaterina Smirnova “ I think we’ll find it Copy Editors successful when we Marin Jorgensen are able to bring Abigail Mieko Vargus personalized learning 34 to any school that POSTMASTER wants to do it.” Send address changes to: Rethink the Gap 26 ADAM SELDOW, Harvard Graduate School of Education Do alternative gap-year programs have lessons for Office of Communications ED.M.’03, ED.M.’08, ED.D’10 13 Appian Way traditional high schools and colleges? No More Sink Cambridge, MA 02138 STORY BY BRENDAN PELSUE the Sub © 2017 by the President and Fellows of What if you brought in a Harvard College. Harvard Ed. magazine is NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY published three times a year. musician or farmer instead Tagging kids content, p. 4 � Helping NASA and PBS create better Departments of a worksheet when a PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. curriculum for teachers, p. 8 � The Making of Lecturer Lee Teitel, teacher was out for the day? Ed.D.’88, p. 10 � CEPR’s Proving Ground gets data to districts faster, CONVO. — READER FEEDBACK 2 STORY BY LORY HOUGH 4 p. 12 � Study Skills: Lizzie Moore, p. 13 � Frisbee life skills, p. 14 � Kernel-sized lessons for social–emotional learning, p. 15 � On My GRAD. — ALUMNI NEWS + NOTES 43 Bookshelf with Assistant Professor Dana McCoy, p. 16 � AND MORE! CLARKE GREG TKTKTK TBB KOZOWYK; JONATHAN LLEWELLYN; TIM TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE, CAMPAIGN 49 HED03-FOB-TOC.indd 2 12/20/16 11:11 PM HED03-FOB-TOC.indd 1 12/20/16 11:37 PM Harvard Ed. Winter 2017 Behind the Story Convo. Lory Hough, Editor in Chief JOIN THE CONVERSATION: SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO [email protected] The piece by JESSICA LANDER, ED.M.’15, “Do the Right Thing. (But Past Tense 1 How?),” pulled in the most comments from our fall 2016 issue, most overwhelmingly positive, with accolades like “wonder- ful essay” and “what an article!” Another reader said he was “moved As readers of the magazine know, and inspired.” Anne Sturgis Watt acknowledged that solving ethical the school announced last summer dilemmas is one of the toughest aspects of teaching. “Sounds that it was starting a new center simple but it ain’t easy,” she wrote. Lori Damon added, “Current pub- focused on early childhood educa- of education have nonexistent or lic school policy for handling ‘problem’ students in the classroom is tion called the Saul Zaentz Early weak programs for the training of most often punitive, which exacerbates the situation and humiliates Childhood Education Initiative. teachers for these young children. the student. I applaud Ms. Lander for protecting her students from this Designed to get all kids kindergar- Our experience as educators should 2 outcome and instead treating problems as springboards for learning ten ready, the initiative includes, teach us that if a child does not get 3 and growing. The impact of her approach is positive and has lasting among other things, a large-scale a wholesome start educationally in effects on her students well beyond the classroom. The true violation study of 3-year-olds that will follow his first five years of life, the reme- here is that Ms. Lander stands alone. Public school policy on this topic for five years their development in dial programs introduced during the is shortsighted and needs to change.” relation to their preschool educa- later years will do little good. tion. Designed to be a go-to place “It is worth noting that when Think back on your time in school. Remember how excited you Reader JJ (JEN) JOHNSON, ED.M.’01, an author of young adult nov- for cutting-edge science about early the national director of Project felt in first grade when, using crayons and paper, you turned 2 els, wrote to tell us she read the story “Too Much on Their childhood practices and strategies, Head Start was chosen, a pediatri- your name into an alien and your creation was hung on the Plates” to her family, and they playfully found a way to re-jig- the initiative will also create profes- cian rather than an educator was ger the content. “I love this, especially the PDF part,” she wrote, sional learning opportunities for selected. It is also clear that some bulletin board outside the classroom. Flash forward to high referring to three things that DENISE POPE, ED.M.’89, author of Overloaded early childhood educators, as well of our most respected educators school when you constantly watched the clock, wondering and Underprepared, thinks are essential for the well-being of students: as a fellowship program for incom- are turning to private industry as a playtime, downtime, and family time. When Johnson read the piece ing Ed School master’s and Doctor source of creative American educa- when the dismissal bell was finally going to ring. How does to her family, “they voted for PDF to be PFD, as in ‘Personal Flotation of Education Leadership students. tional leadership.” this progression from bouncy 6-year-old to bored 16-year-old Device.’ Sharing!” Given the announcement of the happen in school? As Dean Jim Ryan noticed with his own kids new initiative, we found this letter CONNECT WITH ED. The short piece “Elephant, Love” from the summer 2016 issue from a 1967 issue of Ed. magazine when he asked each day how school was, the flat response — 3 continues to get shares and comments on Facebook. For reader interesting and, oddly, also very “boring” — increased as they got older. “Something about the Michelle DeGondea Amato, it even triggered a memory from timely. Written by RICHARD POLSKY, TWITTER.COM/HGSE HARVARDEDUCATION. contrast among my kids,” he wrote in his Education Week blog, childhood. “I must read this,” she wrote. “When I was a child, prob- M.A.T.’56, in response to two first- TUMBLR.COM ably about two or three, during the Christmas pageant at a New Jer- person essays in the magazine’s “finally snapped me out of my complacency about boredom.” sey mall, one year an attraction was riding a baby elephant. I, being a summer 1965 issue by student WHAT HE SAID He began to wonder if “boredom ought to be considered much well-loved grandchild, had the ‘opportunity’ to ride that baby elephant. teachers, the letter urges educators FACEBOOK.COM/ ISSUU.COM/HARVARD It impressed me and affected my relationship with elephants for the to focus more on children’s early HARVARDEDUCATION EDUCATION more seriously when thinking about ways to improve student If you want to know Dean rest of my life. I remember very little about those years, but I clearly years. As Polsky wrote: outcomes.” With this in mind, we decided to tackle the issue Ryan’s thoughts on all remember that elephant and especially her little eyes that looked like “Despite mounting evidence things education, as well as they were crying. Since learning about the emotional intelligence (much of it a result of work done YOUTUBE.COM/ MEDIUM.COM/ in our cover story, “Bored out of Their Minds.” I hope it gets HARVARDEDUCATION @HARVARDEDUCATION other important subjects of elephants and their family bonds, I am haunted by that ex- by the universities themselves) you thinking and keeps you, well, not bored. like baseball and running, perience. I hope that baby elephant has fared as well as I have to this that the first five years of a child’s follow him on Twitter point. He or she would be just a few years younger than me. Thanks life are educationally the most INSTAGRAM.COM/ LETTERS@GSE. READ DEAN RYAN’S BOREDOM PIECE AT @deanryan. for sharing.” important ones, many of our schools HARVARDEDUCATION HARVARD.EDU GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS HED03-FOB-Convo.indd 2 1/4/17 10:15 AM HED03-FOB-Convo.indd 3 1/4/17 10:15 AM Intro. Harvard Ed. Winter 2017 Tagging Twilight Sparkle ( OR, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY A JOB WATCHING TV ALL DAY) STORY BY LORY HOUGH At first, the babysitter didn’t know what to make of her new boss spending hours obsessively analyzing cartoons all day. Things were especially questionable when TRACY ELIZABETH, ED.M.’10, ED.D.’17, watched the same episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic over and over and over again. “I spent more than five hours in a single afternoon watching Twilight Sparkle, the main unicorn pony, figure 4 out how to protect her friends from a 5 feared pony named Nightmare Moon,” Elizabeth says. The sitter, as it turns out, didn’t have anything to worry about: Elizabeth had just started her new job with Netflix as the lead content tagger for children’s media and had to spend hours watching kids’ shows and movies and then decide how to tag, or code, the content.