And what of those who are engaged in composing, hearing, and learning songs, while they twist the voice, whose best and simplest movement Nature designed to be straightforward, into the meanderings of some indolent tune, who are always snapping their fingers as they beat time to some song they have in their head, who are overheard humming a tune when they have been summoned to serious, often even melancholy, matters? These have not leisure, but idle occupation.
Writing on Joanne Jacobs’ excellent education blog, Diane Senechal has her high-school students read this letter from Seneca (which also condemns such frivolous activities as chess, sunbathing, spectator sports, and getting one’s hair cut) as a starting point for classroom discussion about such activities as Facebook and texting.
John Howell says
Ronald Richard Duquette says