I’M BORED.” I hear such statements now and then in various activities. Such expression masking entitlement always gets me to roll my eyes.
How in the world could ever get someone bored? With so many things happening around here and there, there really shouldn’t be any room for boredom.
I’ve seen DVD movies featuring big-name stars like Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Jake GyllenHaal, Naomi Watts and Julianne Moore.
Seeing their names was the push factor to buy, plus their reputation of being choosy with movie offers.
Despite their star status, however, some of their movies were big ho-hums. The story development was unjustified, and the pace quite crawling.
The urge to stop viewing was strong. Still, there’s always the hope that the movie will redeem itself at the end.
So I viewed their movies to the end. I was disappointed, of course; the movies pretended to be intellectual stuff, and the movies left me regretting the purchase.
But there was a learning there. Despite their status, even big-name stars accept roles in third-rate movies most presumably for the money.
Despite feeling that my time was wasted, I could never say “I’m bored.” In fact, I don’t remember a time in my life when I ever said “I’m bored.”
Because there is always something new to experience, to taste, to see, to feel, to breathe into one’s entire system, to lock into one’s brain, and become the better for it.
Graduate students should by now be doing their own Power Point presentations. With such, they learn how to make bullets become their memory joggers.Otherwise, they’ll have to pay hefty sums to a service provider. Such sums can be huge money by graduation time.
Now comes an article stressing that competence in Twitter matters for students in higher education and beyond.
Twitter, the author Eric Stoller says, is a great place for peer-to-peer learning, networking, and leadership.
Thus, in some colleges, Twitter is used as a conduit for student engagement.
Some school administrators resist this part of social media, insisting Twitter has no special use. It’s all a question of attitude, of course. Much resistance to something new is either a conscious act of unwillingness to learn, or the usual fear of the unknown.
It’s all a question of attitude, Stoller stresses. In the long run, one had to choose whether or not to exist in a space of lifelong learning.
In the elementary years, pupils were encouraged to speak much so they could interact better with their teachers and classmates.
The encouragement for students to speak much was carried all through third-year high school. In English classes, students learned vocabulary building with which they could be articulate and eloquent.
By their senior year, the discipline to learn was how much to say in so few words. Précis writing was the skill to develop, as well as the challenge and requirement for passing English classes.
Students who mastered précis writing would not have problems with Twitter. Hopefully, the discipline of précis writing would find no difficulty in complying with the 150-160 word limit.
The world has so much to offer, more than anyone could pack in his 24 hours. Even just sticking to the Internet, how can anyone ever get bored?
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)