Doing Nothing Is Something

Quindlen's main claim is that-

• families spend too little time together

• children spend too much of their summer vacation doing nothing important

• children need to have down time to become creative and well-developed people

• parents need to do a better job of scheduling their children's activities

Quindlen supports her claim about children's lives with -

• complaints that kids spend too much free time watching TV and playing video games

• the idea that kids will commit more crimes if they aren't enrolled in sports programs

• examples of how much better summer camps are now than when she was a child

• a study shows American children have less free time than they did 20 years ago

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Quindlen thinks children's lives are over scheduled by-

• teachers

• children

• schools

• parents

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Which of the following is a fact?

• Downtime is where we become ourselves, lying on the grass and staring at the sky.

• One town recently announced a Family Night, when there would be no homework

• We may be creating an entire generation of people whose ability to think creatively is being destroyed by scheduling.

• Maybe this is a new way of living that has no room for thinking...

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Quindlen says adults worry that a child who is not in a structured activity will-

• become lazy

• come up with creative ideas

• become bored and unhappy

• get into trouble

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Quindlen says her own "boring" summers-

• made her a more competitive adult

• showed the value of structured camp programs

• created tension between her and her mother

• fueled her creativity as a rider

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