The Myth of Laziness

I just finished reading Myth of Laziness by Mel Levine. Levine's thesis is that kids are often accused of a moral flaw -- laziness-- when their actual problem is a mismatch between their level of ability and their ability to actually produce. He uses the myth of Sisyphus who was condemned to push a heavy boulder uphill for all eternity, as an illustration of the state of mind of these kids who find themselves dealing with tasks that to them seem way too burdensome to follow through with.

Through 8 detailed composite case studies, he describes the various different causes for what is called "output failure", and then proposes solutions.

For example, one child was very cognitively gifted and was able to assemble complex things out of scrap materials, but found writing an extraordinarily laborious task and was poor at sports and large motor activities, which exposed him to intense teasing from his peers. Levine found that he suffered from an inability to process verbal commands into motor activities, and an inability to acquire motor memory -- so the coach's orders and demonstrations were not translated into action, and he was unable to acquire fluency in handwriting, which made his written work illegible and simplistic compared to his mental ability.

Another child, a girl, had irregular sleep patterns and also was unable to regulate her energy levels -- so she could start a project very well and then would fade off towards the middle. ANother boy had subtle expressive language deficits; he had not learned to elaborate verbally on a topic or to put it in context so others could understand it. He could verbally relate to his peer group but not beyond that, so he was increasingly taking refuge in his "gang" and basically tuning out on all academic performance.

As Levine works with the school and parent in understanding and helping the child, he proposes accommodations, but also has a system of payback, so that a child with accommodations in his areas of weakness is given extra work to do in his areas of strength.

In order to give the child insight and to dispel the "laziness" stigma, he uses a process called "demystification" to describe the child's pattern of strength and weakness to the child himself. This helps the child be more proactive in helping himself succeed. Levine believes that all children have a desire to succeed and be productive, though they may not realize it themselves. If production is too difficult for mechanical reasons, they find a refuge in passiveness or acting out. So, understanding their own specific areas of weakness and finding ways to cope with it helps them take back control instead of attributing their failure to an irredeemable character flaw like laziness.


Thomas Aquinas defines laziness as a species of fear:

"A deed considered as being actually done, is in the power of the doer. But it is possible to take into consideration something connected with the deed, and surpassing the faculty of the doer, for which reason he shrinks from the deed. It is in this sense that laziness, shamefacedness, and shame are reckoned as species of fear."

So I suppose that looking at it in that light, Levine is trying to get to the roots of the difficulties that make the student think the task is too burdensome to be done. He tries to shine a light on the root sources of the difficulty and then teach the child to manage those so that the task does not seem to "surpass the faculty of the doer". This is probably a more constructive way of handling the problem than to just slap an easy label of "laziness" or "failure" on the child.

I will probably be writing more about Myth of Laziness since there were some lists that I found very helpful and jotted down in note form. There is a review of the book here , and I wrote about laziness once before here, though I was focusing more on the psychological reasons for what is called "laziness" than the logistical reasons.