Facebook leading the way in social media makes others boring. Twitter leading the way in instant communications makes others like Jaiku boring. Even though the others have features that these two leaders may not offer, they were boring, sort of. Are you after more boring stuff?
Professors found that their students sitting in their classes silently, almost lifeless, boring! Students, in turn see their classes boring, and, would rather indulge in Facebook conversations, binge drinking, play War of Worldcraft. Many still find it boring to get up and go to work, but do it anyway as they have to, to earn a living. Is this the root cause of all boredom? Earn to survive or survive somehow to find ways to earn?
You may find all of this boring as you don’t know where I am going with this.
If you agree, then I have touched a nerve. You are now with me on the core issue of making learning happen to make living happen. Once upon a time, yes, it was true that education was the privy of the elite, but industrial revolution changed all that to ensure some skilled people participate skillfully at the work places. Some noble thoughts later, education was made compulsory for everyone till the age of 8 initially and later to 11. We all got caught in that web of compulsory requirements. Anything compulsory is boring, right?
Every human being born into this world has an understanding that he or she has a unique way of looking at the world and feels that it is different from all others. Even if it appears same, you can be assured that they could be performing by projecting their avatars than their true self. They will have differences to voice given a chance and, given that they do not ridicule or harm themselves by doing so.
Hold it! The feeling of boredom is not limited to those who have nothing to do or think of, but also those who are humming around like busy bees suffer from this ailment. It is a state of mind, you may argue. When they feel that their efforts are either not fruitful or not recognized as anything worth, they get bored, sort off. The people within a system, any system, feel threatened if they feel their established ways of thinking and/or doing are at risk of being ridiculed, replaced or thrown away as trash. Any innovative propositions will be dismissed as boring.
In education, learning is a serious pursuit. You can be serious about it, but not boring. Being serious about something is being engaged to an extent that time seems to stand still, space seems to shrink to a size of a cubby hole, and, more importantly, the way in which the learning is happening, from whom it is happening, at where it is happening and how it is happening lose relevance to the learner and to the actual learning that is happening.
Is that what some may call it enlightenment? Is that going to get rid of boredom? Then become a QTIMER, please.