Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Modes of Waiting

1985; University of Alberta Library; Linguagem: Inglês

10.29173/pandp14985

0820-9189

Mikio Fujita,

Waiting? Oh, yeah, I hate that!" Waiting occupies a significant place in the experience of parents and educators.Think of how often and how long we wait with patience, fretfulness, expectation, or even helplessness for a child to get out of diapers, to learn to talk, to ride a bike, to overcome fear of water, to swim, to read, and so on.Waiting is a far from trivial matter in our day-to-day pedagogic lives.In a sense waiting is so familiar a topic that we feel we know only too well what the meaning of waiting is.And yet we would have diffi culty describing the experience of waiting in a particular situation.Moreover, there are different kinds of waiting.There are differences between, say, waiting for our paychecks and waiting for spring to arrive, waiting for the bus to come and waiting for a child to walk, waiting for the end of a movie and waiting for death.On the one hand, waiting may mean simply boredom, an inefficient use of time, empty and unproductive time.But on the other, it may also mean a critically important time which, for example, somehow helps nurture understanding and expression in children, or allows for the appreciation of a good meal at a restaurant, just as it serves quietly to ferment good wine.1 Although, even people who feel that the value of waiting is important in teaching may become easily irritated if they must wait a little too long.They may be overtly waiting while suppressing their impatience, but is this "real" waiting?What is real waiting? Manifold Ways of WaitingA small child comes home tired and hungry from playing outside.Mother says, "Supper is almost ready."But the child can hardly wait."Can't I have a cookie now?" Yet mother is firm and the child throws a tantrum.When miserable, how difficult it is to wait!One morning we wake up too early and we wait silently in bed for the dawn and for the family to awaken.What a tranquil experience!When we reach school age, we wait for recess time, for summer and other vacations filled with expectations.They seem to approach so slowly.Holidays are long in coming!And even at the end of a school day the hands of the clock seem to move deliberately slowly until finally the bell rings.