Why Boredom Matters

157 Pages·2022·0.738 MB·English

by  Kevin Hood Gary

Why Boredom Matters
Boredom is an enduring problem. In response, schools often do one or
both of the following: First, they endorse what novelist Walker Percy
describes as a “boredom avoidance scheme,” adopting new initiative
after initiative in the hope that boredom can be outrun altogether. Sec-
ond, they compel students to accept boring situations as an inevitable
part of life. Both strategies avoid serious reflection on this universal and
troubling state of mind. In this book, Gary argues that schools should
educate students on how to engage with boredom productively. Rather
than being conditioned to avoid or blame boredom on something or
someone else, students need to be given tools for dealing with their
boredom. These tools provide them with internal resources that equip
them to find worthwhile activities and practices to transform boredom
into a more productive state of mind. This book addresses the ways
students might gain these skills.
Kevin Hood Gary is a professor of education at Valparaiso U niversity.
His primary areas of interest include philosophy of education, ethics,
and moral formation. He is a co-founder of the North American Asso-
ciation for Philosophy of Education, which provides a hospitable space
for scholars working at the intersection of philosophy and educational
thought. He recently completed a four-year term as the Richard P.
Baepler Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities at Valparaiso
University.

Why Boredom Matters
Education, Leisure, and the Quest
for a Meaningful Life
Kevin Hood Gary
Valparaiso University
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108839983
doi: 10.1017/9781108878319
© Kevin Hood Gary 2022
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permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2022
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isbn 978-1-108-83998-3 Hardback
isbn 978-1-108-81392-1 Paperback
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accurate or appropriate.
To my wife Heather and to our children Evelyn,
Lucas, and Gabriel

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments page viii
Introduction 1
1 The Morality of Boredom and a Brief History
of Leisure 7
2 The Problem of Boredom 21
3 Despair: The Source of Boredom 47
4 Leisure: A Cure for Boredom 66
5 The Art of Leisure 84
6 Cultivating Leisure 109
Epilogue: Coda on the Self at Leisure 126
References 135
Index 144
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I am grateful to my wife Heather for
her constant love, support, and editorial gifts and for putting up
and living with someone writing a book. Throughout the writing
process, Heather offered invaluable direction, substantive feedback,
and meticulous editing. Second, I am grateful to my dear friend
Doug Yacek. Doug supported me during every phase of the writing
process – carefully reading, editing, and providing feedback on mul-
tiple early drafts, providing needed encouragement and kindness
throughout, and helping me to stay the course. Also, I owe a special
debt of gratitude to my dear friend Mark Jonas who has, for the
past decade, been a constant source of inspiration and scholarly
support. At least in my case, I do not see how books can be written
without a community of friends. With friends like Heather, Mark,
and Doug, I am blessed beyond measure.
There are so many friends and colleagues I owe gratitude
to. In particular, I am grateful to my dear friend Mark Hanafee
for endless conversations about the meaning of life. I am grateful
to my friends Dini Metro-Roland and John Fantuzzo, who care-
fully reviewed and offered substantive suggestions for multiple
chapters. In addition, I am grateful to my dear colleague Mel Piehl
who offered, from his vantage point as an intellectual historian,
thoughtful and critical edits that improved the story I am trying to
tell. In addition, I am grateful to my friends Tal Howard and David
Weber, for their encouragement, feedback, humor, and friendship
throughout this project. Also, I am particularly grateful to my
friend Yoshi Nakazawa who encouraged me to further develop
into a book an earlier chapter I wrote on boredom and contempla-
tion. In addition, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my dear friend
Alven Neiman, who directed my dissertation and lovingly pointed
ix / Acknowledgments
me in the direction of Kierkegaard, to grace, and to the wisdom of
Abraham Heschel.
My family deserves a special mention. In particular, I am
grateful to my daughter Evelyn whose artistic creations bear witness
to the kind of leisure I hope to aspire to. I am grateful to my son
Lucas whose sharp critique of school boredom inspired my writing.
I am grateful to my son Gabriel who embodies a spirit of boundless
leisure. I am especially grateful to my sister Megan, who is not only
an expert psychiatrist but also a wise and loving friend. I am grateful
to my mother and father, Patricia and John Gary (deceased in 2004),
for their love and support of my educational endeavors. In addition,
I am grateful to my mother’s dear friend and partner Bob Johnson,
for his generosity and kindness. Lastly, I need to express gratitude to
my dear uncle John Kenny (aka. Johnny), whose love and practice of
leisure inspired my own. And I would be remiss if I did not express
gratitude to his amazing wife Luz Ramos, whose love radiates the
grace that comes with the practice of genuine leisure.
Lastly, I owe a debt of gratitude to my home institutions,
formerly Goshen College, Loyola Academy, and now Valparaiso
University, for supporting my scholarship. Parts of the chapters in
this book, at earlier stages, were conference papers. In addition, I
was blessed to be the recipient of Valparaiso University’s Baepler
Professorship from 2016 to 2020, which provided valuable sabbat-
ical time to begin work on this project.