Dear HKMS Families,

I love the weather in May.   This time of year engages all five senses in the most pleasurable of ways.  Everything is beautifully in bloom.  The air smells sweet and fresh.  The sun feels strong, but temps are still cool.  The sounds of children playing outside provides us a soundtrack to the season.  Unfortunately, that soundtrack seems to be more and more muffled every year.  

At one time in my life (not very long ago) the parks and roads were full of wandering children.  Pick-up sports games at the fields around school, forts and tree houses being built in the woods, and playgrounds were bursting with energy and screams of free play.  Today is much different.  Children are scooped up into competitive sports leagues, afterschool "school-like" organizations (like Kumon Math, Russian School, etc.), and, worst of all, screen time like online gaming, doom scrolling on YouTube, and group texts.  While our cell phone ban has been successful for the 6.5 hours your children are here, as soon as they step out the doors, the first thing many students do is jump on their phones. A few are checking in with mom or dad for afterschool logistics, but most are jumping onto social media, group chats, video streaming, or video games.  We all know the dangers, especially of social media, but the phone itself is a problem too.  

In an article I've linked below this message, the author Maria Godoy, reports on the steep rise in myopia (nearsightedness) especially among the young.   Pediatric ophthalmologist from Wheaton, IL, Dr. Noha Ekdawi, said "When she started practicing 15 years ago, one or two of the children she saw had myopia. But these days, “about 50% of my patients have myopia, which is an incredibly high number." This trend is seen across all ages, "In the U.S., 42% of people are now myopic – up from 25% back in the 1970s."  The likely causes, close viewing of screens, especially tablets and phones, and lack of "free play, "especially outdoors.   There is a treatment - children should play outside for at least 2 hours every day.  

In a second article that spoke volumes to me (and hurt my soul a bit), Dr. Christine Rosen details how the smartphone and social media have lead to the end of daydreaming and boredom.  The smartphone is a "boredom killing machine" for all of us.  In a world that prizes efficiency for efficiency's sake, we are losing touch with one of the most important, creative, and constructive tools the human mind has, mind-wandering.  Historically, some of the most important human advances have happened when a thinker was bored, lallygagging, or daydreaming.  Think of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, it came to him while on a trolley car ride and caught a glimpse of the Bern Tower. Descartes came up with Geometry while staring at a fly on the ceiling. The idea of AC current, invented by Nikola Tesla, came to him while taking a walk in the woods.  Boredom allows the brain to rest and process the flood of information that inundates us. Numerous scientific studies have concluded that creativity, self-awareness, improvisation, reflection, memory, motivation, and future planning are all improved when the mind has time to rest and not have new stimuli, in other words, to be bored.   In the frenetic pace of our kids' lives, it should not be any surprise that anxiety, depression, isolation, and always feeling overwhelmed is on the rise.

Again, there is a treatment for the never-ending stimuli that invade our children's lives (and yours too). Go outside and play, ride a bike, go on a hike, build a fort, play kickball, color or do any of the 1,000 things we did as kids, that our children miss out on when on a screen.  When they say "but there's nothing to do" you can rest assured that you are giving their brain a chance to catch up, process, and reset.  You can also pull out my mom's favorite line, "figure it out," as she locked the door (really).   It may be the best thing you can do for them today and for a healthy and happy future.  

You know what wasn't boring?  This week at Keller!  Sure testing is a "have to do" task, but we made it fun with lots of activity breaks, an awesome after-school social, and all the great teaching and learning we pride ourselves on! I hope you get a chance to check it all out in this week's newsletter. 

Wishing everyone a very boring weekend. 

Sincerely,

Steve Clapp, Ed.D.