Wallowa.com
OPINION
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
A5
Don’t skip teaching an essential life skill
OTHER VIEWS
Scott Smith
e all have busy lives fi lled with
activities from the moment we
wake up until our head hits the
bed. Yet quite often, at some point in the
day, you might hear, “I’m bored” or, “I
don’t have anything to do” from one of
your kids. Some child-development special-
ists say we often fail to teach our children
one important life skill, dealing with bore-
dom. In addition, children’s days are fi lled
with activities planned by others and can
fi nd it diffi cult to direct themselves to an
activity of their own interests.
In her research, Sandi Mann from the
W
University of Central Lancashire looked at
what we often associate with boredom —
lack of something to do. When we view
boredom from this lens, it allows children
to depend on others for their activities and
restricts their creativity. This is not just
at home but in our educational system, as
well. Our schools have cut recess times
for students greatly over the past 20 years.
This has impacted children’s abilities to
develop friendships, work with others, and
create activities with others independently.
Who would have ever thought mak-
ing sure that our kids always had activi-
ties and events to attend or do might be
harming them? Developing and learning
how to create their own interests and fi ll
their downtime is a life skill we expect
our children to execute. Yet, as adults,
we often experience frustration when our
children face downtime. The child hasn’t
learned or developed the skills to fi ll this
unknown time. Instead, they become
dependent on others to fi ll their day with
activities, and when faced with unplanned
or free time, we hear, “I have nothing to
do, I’m bored.”
Providing a “downtime” where a child
has to spend time on their own is not free
time for the parents at fi rst. Learning not to
be bored is a process and takes time. You
cannot start with 60 minutes of “down-
time.” You have to build up to 60 minutes.
Start with 10 minutes and provide a couple
of choices, such as reading a book or draw-
ing a picture. When you hear those beauti-
ful words, “I’M DONE!” All you have to
say is, “You still have more time to choose
something else.” This is where the learn-
ing takes place, so be ready for the push-
back. Stick to the 10 minutes. After a bit,
you’ll be able to increase by fi ve-minute
intervals. Just as you cannot run a mara-
thon the fi rst time out and must build your
endurance, the same is true in learning how
to deal with boredom. By providing your
child with downtime, you can teach them
how to engage in activities independently
and not depend on others to create activi-
ties for them.
Some schools have cut their recess
times during the school day because of
the demands on instructional time and to
avoid dealing with student misbehavior.
They found that cutting recess time cuts
down students’ misbehaviors, yet is that
best for them? Instead of using this time
as a teaching/developmental time, schools
shorten the time to run and play, shorten-
ing the time to practice these developmen-
tal skills.
We so often assume children can use
free time for productive things when it is a
skill that parents and teachers need to fos-
ter. Take the time to guide children out of
boredom and model and share what you are
doing during your downtime.
———
Scott Smith is a 40-plus year Umatilla
County educator and serves on the
Decoding Dyslexia Oregon board as its
parent/teacher liaison.
Indiff erent government leaders say ‘Let them eat Kix’
OTHER VIEWS
Tom Purcell
I
never parted with a $20 bill faster.
It happened at one of my favorite
diners. The Western omelet and Diet
Coke I often get wasn’t the $11 it had been
for as long as I remember. It was $16.
That expense, with my tip for the excel-
lent waiter, consumed my entire $20 bill.
I feel bad for the diner’s owner. He told
me that soaring food costs have been kill-
ing his profi ts for months. He’s been forced
to raise his prices, yet he’s making half of
what he used to.
Why?
First, his labor costs are up because there
is a shortage of workers and he has to pay
them a higher hourly wage or they won’t
take the job. And second, because he has to
charge higher prices, his customer base is
dwindling.
As wonderful as a diner breakfast is,
more people, getting hit by infl ation across
the board, are choosing to stay home and
eat a bowl of Wheaties or Kix instead.
I’m certainly no economist. But I know
this: Infl ation stinks.
According to one fi nancial adviser
quoted in Forbes, there are a few driving
factors behind our current spike in prices —
high demand and low supply.
COVID-19 lockdowns caused Ameri-
cans to sit on their money for months but
lately they’ve been injecting those dollars
back into the economy with abandon.
The nearly 0% mortgage interest rates
we’ve been enjoying since March 2020 are
driving up the demand for houses — and
therefore their sales prices. And global sup-
ply chains for many products are all goofed
up because of the pandemic’s disruptions.
For instance, due to a shortage of vehi-
cles for sale — new vehicles are being held
back by car makers because of a shortage of
computer chips — new- and used-car prices
are ridiculously high.
I bought a new Toyota Tacoma off road
truck in December of 2019 and it’s done
something no other vehicle I’ve bought has
ever done in my life: gone up in value.
Kelly Blue Book tells me that my truck
with 11,100 miles on it is worth $3,000
more than I paid for it brand new.
That is one of the few upsides to infl a-
tion. Owning property is another. If you
have a fi xed-rate mortgage, but the dollar
“value” of your home keeps rising, you at
least keep pace with infl ation.
But if you are retired, as my parents are,
and living on a fi xed income, infl ation is
an invisible tax that nibbles at the buying
power of your money. Your limited dollars
buy fewer groceries and other increasingly
expensive basic items you need to sustain
yourself.
I trust in the effi ciency of the many very
talented business people in our mostly free
economy to adjust to infl ation and get our
markets running smoothly again.
But I don’t trust our government lead-
ers who have been spending recklessly for
years and are currently attempting to ram a
massive, ridiculous spending bill down our
throats that could make high infl ation a last-
ing problem.
I fondly remember the Clinton presi-
dency when our government actually took
in more money than it spent. But since
2001, Presidents Bush ($6 trillion), Obama
($9 trillion) and Trump ($6 trillion) have
reversed that trend and added trillions to
our total debt.
Way too few people in Washington seem
to care about our $28 trillion national debt
or the infl ation they’ve caused.
They don’t care a whit about struggling
diner owners or cash-strapped patrons who
now eat cereal for breakfast.
———
Tom Purcell is an author and humor col-
umnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.
I want to hear what you have to say, whatever your viewpoint may be
FROM THE
EDITOR’S
DESK
Ronald Bond
I
’ve been pleased to see the letters to the
editor fl owing to my inbox the way they
have been the last month.
Once in a while, I hear that the Chieftain
isn’t representing the views of the coun-
ty’s citizens. Yet letters to the editor are one
of the best ways for people to be heard. At
times, they rush in much like the Wallowa
River does at the beginning of spring. Too
often, though, they trickle at the rate the
river did in late summer this year.
Letters to the editor carry an importance,
one many readers miss out on. This is the
easiest for a resident to get their opinion out
there, to off er their take on any topic.
We run letters to the editor on any topic
you can imagine, from any viewpoint imag-
inable — conservative, liberal, independent
or any other ideology you may or may not
subscribe to.
Opinion, as best as we can, is kept out
of the news portion of our publication. The
Opinion Page is set apart for exactly what
it’s name says — the opinion of the per-
son submitting a piece, whether it be a from
syndicated columnist, from our newsroom
or from the readership.
It’s important for this to be in the paper
given we make the attempt to run strictly
news articles that are based on facts and
that keep opinions out of them in the rest
of the pages. We don’t do this perfectly, but
we do so, in part, with the hope that we can
present the middle line — not too far to one
side or the other — as the middle is where
the truth often is found.
Frankly, I want your letters to the edi-
tor. I want to be able to see what your views
on topics are, and get them out there for the
public. I originally wrote this column about
three weeks ago to encourage letters to the
editor as we were in a massive dry spell of
them. Space limited running it at the time,
and with my inbox inundated in recent
weeks, I actually had to alter this piece.
But what follows, the second reason I
wrote this column, I still want to pitch, and
see if there is interest in the community
In addition to your letters, I also want
your feedback on the paper in general,
which is why I am putting out the call for a
“Coff ee with the editor” meeting which, if
successful, I would hold periodically.
The purpose of this will be twofold. One,
it will give those who attend an opportunity
to voice their takes to me directly. And two,
it will allow them the opportunity to ask
me questions — questions that I will do my
best to answer.
This is not something I have done
before, but, if well-attended and successful,
it is something I would like to do maybe
once a month to hear from the public.
Readers, if you are interested in meeting
with me with a group of other subscribers
to ask questions and give feedback, email
editor@wallowa.com with the subject “Cof-
fee with the editor.” You also can call me at
541-398-5502. If we get 10 individuals on
board, I will follow up with each of you to
set up a meeting time.
For those who haven’t submitted a letter
to the editor but want your opinion heard,
email them to editor@wallowa.com, and
include “Letter to the editor” in the subject
line. They can also be mailed to 209 NW
1st Street, Enterprise, OR 97828. Please
limit submissions to once every two weeks.
I look forward to hearing from you and,
perhaps, meeting with you.
———
Ronald Bond is the editor of the Wallowa
County Chieftain.
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