Many of my elementary school tutoring students also see other tutors. They play musical instruments and participate in organized sports. Most of them have at least one scheduled activity every day after school, and two or more on Saturdays and Sundays.
Such a highly organized childhood can produce accomplished kids who excel at most of the things they do. However, it often leaves them with little time for free play, daydreaming, or figuring out what to do when they’re bored. Those who already have access to video games often default to them during unscheduled time, further reducing the chance that they will create their own fun or have ideas of their own.
These experiential deficits reduce my students’ capacity for independent, creative thought. Some confuse stories with video games: the character goes to get a thing, fights the boss, gets the thing, and goes home. There are no other characters, and there is no conversation, description, or character development.
One second-grader thought that my instruction to write a story about a kid who has an adventure on the way home from school meant that she should write about her irritation with her always-on-the-phone older sister. A fourth-grader thought that writing out Harry Potter’s arrival at Hogwarts counted as writing a story. When I pointed out its lack of originality, his mother said he worked hard on it. When I thought about it, I realized that a child who was not allowed outside by himself, saw four tutors every week, and played two musical instruments probably had few opportunities to think of his own magical adventures.
Too much scheduled, programmed time--whether it’s violin practice, academic tutoring, or playing Minecraft--deprives children of opportunities to think, imagine, experiment, and read for fun. When I work with fully scheduled students, I often find that they are unable to write speculatively or experientially because their programmed lives keep them within the bounds of their own reality, with little opportunity to imagine, think adaptively, or solve problems for themselves.
Lately, I’ve begun substituting pre-written questions that students complete for homework with a freer kind of reading that encourages kids to determine what’s interesting or important about a book for themselves. We’re reading aloud more and giving ourselves time to savor the good parts. Recently, I read the first chapter of Alice in Wonderland aloud with a sixth grader. He giggled his way through Alice’s long monologue during her fall down the rabbit hole. I assigned the first five chapters, but I didn’t give him any written questions to complete. I just want him to read and let the story work its magic.
Elizabeth Breau, Ph.D., is a private English tutor and the author of History According to SAT: A Content Guide to SAT Reading and Writing. Her website is historyaccordingtosat.com. She can be reached at elizabeth.breau@gmail.com.
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