We need to stop punishing kids for daydreaming

I spend a lot of time daydreaming, in fact I often go to bed early in order to get some solid daydreaming time in, and hit my alarm a good 3-5 times in the morning, as during this time my mind goes on wonderful adventures, but with the snooze going off every 10 minutes I’m able to have some control over where the dreams go.

While this morning routine drives my husband crazy, he doesn’t have the same love for dreaming as I do, it’s so wonderful that I can’t stop.

I write lesson plans, solve problems, and design scarves during these dreaming sessions, they’re quiet productive.

In class I asked my students how much time they spend daydreaming, they looked back at me with blank stares, so either they were daydreaming right then and there and had no clue what I just asked, or they didn’t spend time daydreaming. It was the latter.

While my affinity for daydreaming may not be a good enough reason to spend a class period daydreaming, I felt that research behind the benefits of daydreaming was.

“When we see someone daydreaming, we have no idea what’s going on in their head,” he says. “These functions that all come from within — like imagination and mind-wandering — have been shown to be really important contributors to creativity.” Kaufman 

I did what any good teacher does when they see a problem, I decided that we were going to spend some time daydreaming. Not only was I curious to see how this dream session would factor into their projects, I also was excited to spend a class period daydreaming, and was sure that when I shared the lesson with the class the room would fill with cheers.

That’s not what happened.

It was a warm spring day, I eagerly told the class that we were going to walk to the lake and spend the class period daydreaming. The only rules,  no sleeping, no phones, and they were going to do a journal reflection at the end.

There were no cheers, but there were a lot raised hands. I was confused. How can they have questions.

student: are you allowed to do this?

student: did you really write this in your lesson plans?

students: does the principal know about this?

student: are you going to get fired?

While I appreciated their concern for my well being, this was proving how bad they really thought daydreaming was. It was as though I told them we were going to go have a smoke break, rob a bank, or throw all of the textbooks in the the lake.

I assured the students that this was allowed, I did write it on my lesson plans that I turned into the principal , and that I was not going to get fired.

With this we gathered our things and headed to the lake.

One student, who didn’t do so well in school, strolled up beside me and with great pride exclaimed, I’m going to be the BEST at this, I daydream all day in school.

I smiled, knowing that this was accurate, and was glad that he was finding success and learning what to do with his endless daydreams.