drawing attention to doodling
Amid narrow writing and the occasional diagram, vividly colored doodles clutter the corners of tests, note sheets, and homework assignments. Graphic portrayals of an animal’s cell structure, Odysseus’s journey back to Ithaca, or even triangles interlocked in strange sequences are drawn as pleasant additions to everyday notes. Doodling, an art enjoyed by the vast majority of students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School provides a fun yet engaging way to experience the classroom for students who struggle to focus in class or who simply enjoy drawing casually.
Senior Dani Tiedemann is one of these students, someone who needs to doodle in class in order to better pay attention. “I doodle during discussion based classes like English or history because I need to be able to do things with my hands,” she said. “I have to talk with all of my teachers every year so that they know that I’m paying attention, that doodling is how I pay attention.”
Tiedemann has a passion for art and drawing in particular, noting that “if I don’t do it [doodle] for a while, I get antsy. I get too many ideas of what to draw. I have ADHD so it helps me to be doing something.” Tiedemann appreciates the support she’s received from her teachers throughout her high school career. “It’s cool about SPA that they’re very open and understanding about the things students need,” she said.
Although Tiedemann has permission to doodle in class without getting in trouble for looking distracted, she cautions other students to be careful about paying attention. “It’s different if you talk to them beforehand. If you look like you’re not paying attention, that impacts the mood of the discussion,” she said. “You have to be mindful of looking up and engaging.”
Tiedemann attributes her need to doodle in class with her more visually-oriented brain, separating her doodles from important diagrams or notes. “In one corner I have somewhere where I’m just doodling random things and in another corner I write down important things the teacher is saying,” she described.
Senior Luke Bishop also doodles in class occasionally, although his reason for doing so is purely for enjoyment or as an expression of his ideas. “I’m in Art Seminar so I like art a lot. Sometimes what I’m thinking about in the class is what I end up doodling,” he said.
Bishop doesn’t think doodling helps him concentrate in class, although he views it as an important pastime as it “gives people an escape if they’ve had a long day of classes. It helps shut their brains off,” he said.
Senior Amber Skarjune also enjoys doodling as an artistic hobby, carrying a piece of paper and a pencil around with her wherever she goes. “It’s kind of an instinctual thing. Something to edge off being tired,” she said. Like Bishop, Skarjune doodles for pleasure, instead as a way to help her concentration. “If there’s a break, and we don’t have to be paying attention I’ll doodle,” she said. Otherwise, Skarjune doesn’t really doodle in class, but makes an effort to keep herself focused on what she’s learning.
However, Skarjune does see herself as a visually-oriented person, saying that “[I] like to do a lot of art. There’s a correlation between my love of art and [my need to] doodle.” Even if doodling isn’t beneficial to Skarjune within the classroom, she still feels its strong appeal. “For me, it’s an impulse. I kind of have to do it,” she said.
Junior Alice Tibbetts also does not find herself doodling in class as often as she does in her freetime. “Sometimes I might doodle after a test in a class,” Tibbetts said. For her, doodling in class does not help with her concentration serves mostly as a distraction, her attention is going in to her art rather than the work she should be doing. “I don’t pay attention in class if I am doodling,” she said.
Upper School English teacher Lucy Polk is an avid supporter of doodling for concentration purposes, although she dislikes the vandalism that sometimes arises from bored doodlers, and manifests itself primarily on harkness tables. “I used to be a big doodler myself...I think it’s a way to take the energy that wants to distract them [students] and give it a use so they can stay focused,” she said. Polk supports, even encourages productive doodling, as she believes “our hands are meant to be busy. We’re meant to be doing things.”
However, Polk cautions doodlers to recognize the difference between doodling and vandalism. “We replaced the ninth grade Harkness table because it was so full of doodles in room 325,” she said. Although it may be difficult for more antsy students to concentrate during long 75 minute blocks, Polk thinks the new schedule tips the scale at least a little in their favor. “The new schedule is more active, and I think that was a response to the restlessness we’ve seen lately,” she said.
Upper School History teacher Nan Dreher shares this viewpoint, saying “It [doodling] doesn’t bother me. I think it is less distracting [for students] to doodle on paper than play on their laptops.” Dreher also is a doodler, especially during long meetings and “ if something is being discussed that isn’t relevant to me.” She added that she tends to draw geometric shapes in her doodling moments.
Despite the fact that some teachers, like Polk, allow doodling within the classroom, this isn’t always the case, according to sophomore Nina Perleberg. “Teachers generally don't like it. They take it as I sign that I'm not listening or paying attention,” she said. For Perleberg, doodling isn’t a path to focusing in class, although she says it does help her “get feelings out and organize [herself] mentally.”
Senior Sonja Mischke agrees with Perleberg, saying that “the general reaction to doodling is negative.” During school, she doodles “everywhere I’m not supposed to… sometimes it’s just like breathing, it just sort of happens.” Mischke believes that along with providing an entertaining hobby, doodling helps ground her in class. “I do focus better...it gives my brain a break, without having to stop what I’m doing,” she said.
Although doodling, an art as well as a hobby, functions in a variety of roles for students in and out of school, it still represents an important practice conducted by the majority of the student body. As Polk said, “the connection between our hands and our brains is primal...not everything is an intellectual pursuit.”
Design credit: Javier Whitaker-Castañeda
Senior Dani Tiedemann is one of these students, someone who needs to doodle in class in order to better pay attention. “I doodle during discussion based classes like English or history because I need to be able to do things with my hands,” she said. “I have to talk with all of my teachers every year so that they know that I’m paying attention, that doodling is how I pay attention.”
Tiedemann has a passion for art and drawing in particular, noting that “if I don’t do it [doodle] for a while, I get antsy. I get too many ideas of what to draw. I have ADHD so it helps me to be doing something.” Tiedemann appreciates the support she’s received from her teachers throughout her high school career. “It’s cool about SPA that they’re very open and understanding about the things students need,” she said.
Although Tiedemann has permission to doodle in class without getting in trouble for looking distracted, she cautions other students to be careful about paying attention. “It’s different if you talk to them beforehand. If you look like you’re not paying attention, that impacts the mood of the discussion,” she said. “You have to be mindful of looking up and engaging.”
Tiedemann attributes her need to doodle in class with her more visually-oriented brain, separating her doodles from important diagrams or notes. “In one corner I have somewhere where I’m just doodling random things and in another corner I write down important things the teacher is saying,” she described.
Senior Luke Bishop also doodles in class occasionally, although his reason for doing so is purely for enjoyment or as an expression of his ideas. “I’m in Art Seminar so I like art a lot. Sometimes what I’m thinking about in the class is what I end up doodling,” he said.
Bishop doesn’t think doodling helps him concentrate in class, although he views it as an important pastime as it “gives people an escape if they’ve had a long day of classes. It helps shut their brains off,” he said.
Senior Amber Skarjune also enjoys doodling as an artistic hobby, carrying a piece of paper and a pencil around with her wherever she goes. “It’s kind of an instinctual thing. Something to edge off being tired,” she said. Like Bishop, Skarjune doodles for pleasure, instead as a way to help her concentration. “If there’s a break, and we don’t have to be paying attention I’ll doodle,” she said. Otherwise, Skarjune doesn’t really doodle in class, but makes an effort to keep herself focused on what she’s learning.
However, Skarjune does see herself as a visually-oriented person, saying that “[I] like to do a lot of art. There’s a correlation between my love of art and [my need to] doodle.” Even if doodling isn’t beneficial to Skarjune within the classroom, she still feels its strong appeal. “For me, it’s an impulse. I kind of have to do it,” she said.
Junior Alice Tibbetts also does not find herself doodling in class as often as she does in her freetime. “Sometimes I might doodle after a test in a class,” Tibbetts said. For her, doodling in class does not help with her concentration serves mostly as a distraction, her attention is going in to her art rather than the work she should be doing. “I don’t pay attention in class if I am doodling,” she said.
Upper School English teacher Lucy Polk is an avid supporter of doodling for concentration purposes, although she dislikes the vandalism that sometimes arises from bored doodlers, and manifests itself primarily on harkness tables. “I used to be a big doodler myself...I think it’s a way to take the energy that wants to distract them [students] and give it a use so they can stay focused,” she said. Polk supports, even encourages productive doodling, as she believes “our hands are meant to be busy. We’re meant to be doing things.”
However, Polk cautions doodlers to recognize the difference between doodling and vandalism. “We replaced the ninth grade Harkness table because it was so full of doodles in room 325,” she said. Although it may be difficult for more antsy students to concentrate during long 75 minute blocks, Polk thinks the new schedule tips the scale at least a little in their favor. “The new schedule is more active, and I think that was a response to the restlessness we’ve seen lately,” she said.
Upper School History teacher Nan Dreher shares this viewpoint, saying “It [doodling] doesn’t bother me. I think it is less distracting [for students] to doodle on paper than play on their laptops.” Dreher also is a doodler, especially during long meetings and “ if something is being discussed that isn’t relevant to me.” She added that she tends to draw geometric shapes in her doodling moments.
Despite the fact that some teachers, like Polk, allow doodling within the classroom, this isn’t always the case, according to sophomore Nina Perleberg. “Teachers generally don't like it. They take it as I sign that I'm not listening or paying attention,” she said. For Perleberg, doodling isn’t a path to focusing in class, although she says it does help her “get feelings out and organize [herself] mentally.”
Senior Sonja Mischke agrees with Perleberg, saying that “the general reaction to doodling is negative.” During school, she doodles “everywhere I’m not supposed to… sometimes it’s just like breathing, it just sort of happens.” Mischke believes that along with providing an entertaining hobby, doodling helps ground her in class. “I do focus better...it gives my brain a break, without having to stop what I’m doing,” she said.
Although doodling, an art as well as a hobby, functions in a variety of roles for students in and out of school, it still represents an important practice conducted by the majority of the student body. As Polk said, “the connection between our hands and our brains is primal...not everything is an intellectual pursuit.”
Design credit: Javier Whitaker-Castañeda