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Even now at age 35, the sound of a single prop airplane overhead brings back the warm, fuzzy feeling of being snuggled down in my parents' bed in mid-afternoon for quiet time. We lived close to a small airport and each afternoon, right around my usual rest time, planes would come and go at regular intervals and I would lie there listening to the sound as I daydreamed and sometimes drifted off to sleep.

This is just one distant memory of a happy, secure childhood in which I was well-loved and well-raised by parents who understood that it was not their job to keep us entertained at all times. Most afternoons were spent playing outdoors, running through the woods with my best friend and my brother, or building our own Slip-N-Slide out of black plastic trash bags and my father's garden hose. Saturday mornings were a time for cartoons and chores and more free time outside. We rarely dared tell our parents we were bored, knowing full well what the response would be... "Go outside and play." Life was full of adventure and games of our own making, punctuated each afternoon by a little bit of required quiet time. This was partly to give my mother a few moments of peace. But even more importantly, it gave our bodies and minds a few moments with nothing to do but think and relax.

Much has changed in the few short years since I was a child. Now children spend much of their free time inside watching a continuously flickering tv screen or the ever-changing scenes of their favorite video game. Car rides almost always include the constant sound of the radio as we shuttle our families to soccer games and karate practice, dance classes and play dates. There is very little down time for our kids nowadays and rarely any real quiet time. Almost the entire day is structured and planned from start to finish and having to find one's own entertainment seems like a foreign idea. In the quest to give our children the world and as many experiences as possible, we are robbing them of something just as valuable... time to relax. My classroom is filled with tired little bodies and over-stimulated minds. Many of my students don't know how to quiet themselves and be still for even a few moments. They are easily bored by books and stories, often asking, "When can we watch a video?" These are children who have been entertained since birth and never learned about the quiet things in life. In a time when more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, I wonder, are these children really suffering or have they just not learned to be still?

The quiet buzz of an airplane flying by on a warm summer day with nothing to do but close my eyes and rest. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Learn more about this author, J Tyler.
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