Creative Flow - Or, why we must let our kids get bored

I've been curious about this for awhile now...several years ago I saw some photos appear, twitter perhaps, of Amesbury School students working with signs next to them saying "Please do not disturb, I'm in Flow".

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a day with Mark Treadwell, a post will be coming about that, and he spoke of this 'flow'. He was discussing creativity, and how our brains cannot do 2 conscious things at once...so to be creative, people need the cognitive space to be so...to get into that zone, the creative flow state. He challenged us to allow children to become 'bored', as it is only then that creativity and imagination are possible. Encourage day dreaming, and if children are 'in flow'...leave them to it, hence the Amesbury signs.

This challenges some of the ways I operate in the class, having a set of tasks for the children to work through when not with me...Must Do's, Can Do's. While great for allowing choice, and giving them the opportunity to timetable their learning day, it doesn't leave much space for boredom or day dreaming. Also, the calling of groups...come down for your reading group, now its time for your writing workshop...am I getting in the way of this flow state? Should I leave them to it?

Shots of Awe, Jason Silva, illustrates this concept will with this short video...he calls his videos 'philosophical expresso', an intense burst of cognitively challenging prompts, messages and visuals.

Something I might try is removing some of my tasks, and replace them with blank spaces...what learning do they want/need? And, if they are working on this things they can opt out of some of the learning workshops I may call them to. Give them the opportunity to get bored, to enter that state of flow, and to enjoy the rush of creativity when constraints of time/space have been removed from them (even if only briefly!).