Anna Quindlen Doing Nothing Is Something Summary

545 Words3 Pages
Title What is down time? Do our children need it to be more creative? These are the questions I thought about while reading “Doing Nothing Is Something” by Anna Quindlen. In her writing Quindlen refers to down time as downing nothing; like staring into space contemplating life. She also believes that all children need down time to be creative. I agree with her on the point that down time should be spent doing nothing; not the staring in to space kind of nothing, but doing what you want to do as long as it is relaxing too you. As far as our children needing it to be more creative; down time isn’t the only way our children become creative. Today’s children have access to more thing, than Quindlen had growing up, that can tap into their creativity. For me down time is when I get to do something I enjoy.…show more content…
time spent not working; free or leisure time; b. a brief period of inactivity occurring between tasks or obligations; rest, pause, break, ect. (yourdictionary). With this definition in mind you can see that Quindlen views, along with my views on down time, coincides with the actual definition. For children today down time comes in different ways and sometimes they need to be reminded to take a break from their busy lives. Quindlen believes that our children today are too busy for down time and parents need to schedule it for them. As a parent of two teenage boys, that are very busy during the school year, they are encouraged to take the summer off and do nothing. They still keep busy going to camps and hanging out with friends, this is down time in their minds, doing what they want to do. Children today can’t just sit and do nothing, but does that mean that aren’t as
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  • Anna Quindlen Doing Nothing Is Something Summary

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    Numerous studies have shown that free play is critical to early childhood development. In her piece “Doing Nothing Is Something” Anna Quindlen calls to attention an escalating threat to our children’s social and cognitive development. In her writing the author begins by recounting the blissful boredom that makes for the most “productive” downtime. Sadly, the story doesn’t end here. Anna Quindlen introduces an emerging trend; parents are attempting to guide their children’s futures at an earlier age

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