Doodling during class aids learning
April 11, 2015
by Rosa Stern-Pait
When junior Logan Roche was in middle school, her father made her bring sketchbooks in to school so she would not get in trouble for drawing on her worksheets.
“The sketchbooks made things worse for the teachers,” Roche said. “They thought I was not listening at all.”
Like others at the high school, Roche has been doodling since she started school. Some artists said they find that doodling helps them focus in class while improving their skills. However, the practice has occasionally irked teachers, prompting one to cross out a drawing on a test, junior Priscilla Chung said.
“Sometimes if I take out my book and start drawing, it kind of shows the teacher that I’m not really paying attention,” senior Nicky Rhodes said.
Science teacher Dan Costa said he understands that drawing can help students pay attention in class.
“I generally evaluate how well the student performs in the long run before I decide whether I need to make any corrective action,” Costa said.
But overall, Rhodes, Roche and Chung said that teachers are lenient and that the benefits of being able to practice drawing outweigh the costs of possibly being reprimanded by teachers.
“Once in a while, doodle a little hand, and then you draw another hand, then another hand and then slowly without realizing it you get better,” senior Kaitlynd Collins said.
Rosa Stern-Pait can be contacted at [email protected].
