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Welcome to ANI in the air and talk about Tuesday where I talk about something
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related to Sudbury schools. So today's this week's theme is boredom and
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hopefully you never feel boredom on this podcast if you're listening to it but I
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am going to talk about it so in the context of Sudbury schools it's it's
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something that we view as extremely important. There are a variety of times
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when students will say I'm bored and they're kind of like looking for
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something to do and we don't give them anything to do or you know make some
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joke about something they can do but we don't try to keep them busy we want them
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to figure out you know in those moments of boredom what to do and and ideally
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how to be at peace with the boredom how to really like lean into it how to how
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to embrace the boredom in a way that you know isn't just leading to a boring
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depressing life but in a way that appreciates it and is a way to observe
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that boredom in such a way that it leads to something interesting afterwards it's
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it's you know kind of a just as you know we're active during the day you know we
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need some sleep to kind of recharge boredom is a little bit like the sleep
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of the mind while waking in some sense like a kind of a reset a kind of a
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letting things lie fallow and from that kind of ground it you know new stuff
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grows so that's our idea one particular point in time when boredom is really
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intense is that transition between being a young kid and being a teen somewhere
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in there a lot of a lot of people end up with being very bored because all the
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stuff that they used to find enjoyable and interesting no longer and you know
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it's no longer true but they haven't found the new directions yet and it's
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really in my belief a way for the brain to kind of reorient itself figure out
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new directions and then proceed in those directions so I think that's kind of
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what's going on but it can be a very kind of long and intensive process of
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lots of boredom things just it's like you know potentially even the the colors
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of the world fade right and it's a tricky thing and I am not qualified to
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make that distinction between boredom and depression but they certainly border
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on each other and you know but it's a way for the brain to kind of just just
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you know open up the space for something new and so you know we try to we try to
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get people to understand that about that time period it also coincides often with
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when one might think about going to high school which is a whole nother
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conversation and it is important to consider it since because of
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bureaucratic miss it is not easy to join a high school as a junior right you need
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some kind of background credits or whatever to graduate so that's a problem
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even if you knew all the stuff of those years it doesn't matter so you know
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there's a natural timing of thinking about it there's also a natural timing
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that you know this is essentially where they're like trying to take on adult
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world and adult kind of roles directions and you know the the popular line is oh
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you need to go have this education to become a fully functional adult which is
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false but it's a very tempting time and then it also coincides with this boredom
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which is not a coincidence because that boredom is there as this as this
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cleaning step to become to taking the steps into the adult world so you know
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that's a really good time to kind of like check in with the staff and ask
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about it all you know to get that grounding but you know it is something
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to to handle now there is another aspect of boredom which is the avoidance of
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boredom and you know I don't really know to what extent our students avoid boredom
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by like say going to YouTube or whatever a lot of times the boredom is coming
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from a dissatisfaction with say being on YouTube all day long or on other devices
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or computers or whatever so I think you know boredom is that mechanism that says
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you know what this is kind of pointless and stops it but I know for myself when
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I do feel kind of bored and it's largely less like I don't have something to do I
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always have tons of stuff to do it's just kind of like my brain can't handle
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doing more stuff well mr. cicada or maybe mr. cicada um it's probably gonna
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come back isn't it oh my goodness you just came back
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oh cicadas man they're not bored they just fly around anyway sorry about that
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interruption I hope that didn't bore you now yeah so for me one of the challenges
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that I have is that I need some downtime I mean everybody needs downtime and so
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that kind of is when I sort of feel bored and and that's kind of when I like
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reach out to YouTube and and watch some ridiculously pointless thing no doubt
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different than what the students are watching but still you know it's it's
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something that is a distraction from what I want to do and you know it's like
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why can't I be watching something that supports what I do well it's because my
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brain doesn't want to do that right my brain is just like I am done right now
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go just sit quietly somewhere and you know and it's like oh well I want some
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kind of like story input I want to listen to these things and oh my goodness
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you just yawned this is an exciting podcast already it's really does feel
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like a low energy but I mean it's a beautiful day so I don't really know I'm
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so low energy yeah so that is I guess what I have to say about boredom I hope
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it wasn't too boring to hear me go on about it but you know it's a very
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important emotion to to learn how to be comfortable with I certainly wish I
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would be more comfortable with it like I could just you know if I could just like
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sit for 20 minutes and literally not think not do not watch not nothing I
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think I'd be a much more grounded person you know it's kind of what a lot of the
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meditation stuff seems to suggest that they're trying to do absolutely played
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around with that but yeah it's not not something that really draws me as an
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activity anyway I guess that is what I have to say about that topic well hope
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you have a good one and I will see you when I see you