Professor Shalini Shankar urges parents to help their children learn to be bored

Professor Shalini Shankar, of the Department of Anthropology, discussed the detriments of over-scheduling kids in a new guest essay for The New York Times Opinion section.

Shankar urged parents to consider reintroducing their children to their busy pre-pandemic schedules at a more gradual pace, as she discovered through her research that over-scheduling extracurriculars has widened racial gaps and worsened Gen Z’s mental health.

“But what can parents do with our kids instead? The answer is simple, though not easy to carry out: We can teach them (and perhaps relearn ourselves) the value of unstructured time and greater civic participation,” she said.

Northwestern Professor Shalini Shankar. Photo by Jim Prisching

Though Shankar said extracurriculars certainly allow for benefits like physical exercise, intellectual stimulation, and fun, it is also important to teach kids that it is OK — and actually healthy — to be bored on occasion. She said that, currently, children feel pressure to excel at a much younger age than past generations, but the over-scheduling of expensive activities does not necessarily guarantee their success.

Read the full essay here.