President Jean Gonzalez of South Coast College answers the question:  “Can the capacity for enduring boredom be developed?” (Please read these questions in order 1-10.)

 

Sometimes people who enter court reporting programs have the capacity for boredom, but it is being focused on some other area.  Then, a conflict arises.  Todd Olivas, an alumnus of South Coast College, was focusing on his skills as a musician when he entered South Coast College.  He then focused on his web site development skills.  Then, one day he appeared in a class that I was teaching that he has since come to describe as the most “mind numbing experience” that he has ever had.  The class was an optional class.  Students did not have to take the class. 

 

Every class meeting, students would come and go.  Sometimes I would hear students say,  “I tried it once.  It didn’t work.”  I would see some for a week.  Others would come every other day.  However, every day that I looked up, I would see Todd Olivas.  It was then that I realized that he had channeled his capacity for boredom to court reporting.  It was then that he had decided to become a court reporter.

 

The challenge for schools once a person has become a court reporting student (if that capacity for enduring boredom does not exist) is to try to develop that quality in the student.  In a world filled with technical distractions to constantly entertain everyone, the challenge has become increasingly difficult. 

 

Many people do not come to court reporting school with the realization that repetition is the key to success.  Or, the capacity for boredom exists as evidenced by a student’s propensity for constant text-messaging, but the channeling of that capacity has not occurred.  Only the individual can make the choice to develop the capacity to endure boredom or to channel his/her capacity for boredom to the development of a particular skill.