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Idleness is Okay
September 3, 2007
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The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people.
-Maria Montessori
This quote by Evelyn Waugh comes from the new book by Tom Hodgkinson, How to Be Idle (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). Hodgkinson makes the case in 24 essays that time spent not working is time well spent. Along the way he lampoons the many things that get in the way of us enjoying our leisure: employment, consumerism, middle-class propriety, status anxiety, deeply ingrained workaholism, and lack of imagination.

According to Hodgkinson, idleness is a whole philosophy based on the notion that much of life’s magic presents itself in those spontaneous, lazy moments when we are not intent on producing something. He observes…

“Planned schemes of merriment rarely turn into the best evenings, which are usually the unplanned ones, when you have abandoned yourself to fate and chance and chaos.”



If idleness is not your thing, check out the many jobs available for early childhood professionals in our online Job Opportunities service.

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Comments (1)

Displaying 1 Comment
katherine bilman · September 03, 2007
Apple B\'s and Apple Seeds Child Development Centers
 Warren, NJ, United States


I was always the one to work 90 hour weeks
I was always the one to shop till I dropped
I was always the one to clean until my hands hurt
I was always the one to Mother until the family could not stand it any longer
I could not stop - Now I have learned that things will get done eventually! Now that I am "sane" again I realize my daughter and son and husband were probably right - I will live longer if and when I learn to relax. Soon Soon Soon.



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