According to freshman Jenny Olins, some teachers “don’t really care” when their students doodle in class. Olins was surprised one block to experience the opinion of another teacher: “Others throw notebooks at you,” she explained.
While some teachers find doodling disrespectful and a waste of time, others think the opposite. Many, such as English teacher Jim Norton, encourage students to doodle on the back of their tests or in-class essays while they wait for other students to finish. History teacher Kristen Russell accepts the fact that kids doodle in class and even believes that if it is not used as a means of distraction, doodling can help students maintain focus and sit still. “If students are ‘bored’ in class, they come up with mechanisms to distract, and that fire should be under your pen and shouldn’t distract from productivity,” she said. If Russell senses that a student’s doodling is distracting them, she covers the student’s page with her hand to signal that they should pay attention.
School psychologist Andrew Aspel, a doodler himself in high school, sees value in doodling moderation. He said doodling is “usually a kind of art that can be an intriguing tool. It, however, should not be used to supplement the lack of usage of that part of the brain because it can be very distracting.”
Even for teachers who do not mind doodling, it can become a distraction at times. Aspel said that although doodling may help certain people stay focused, it becomes a problem when students get overly engrossed in their artwork.
For other ways to stay focused in class, Aspel recommends snacking, sitting away from friends, being closer to teachers and hydrating during the day. He also attributed high schoolers’ lack of concentration in part to being tired in class.
Researchers have also found that doodling can have positive effects. A study published in "Applied Cognitive Psychology" suggested that mindless doodling could in fact help improve memory. Jackie Andrade, a researcher for the project, wrote, "Daydreaming distracts [people] from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task." The participants in the study who were doodling while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent higher memory recall of the recording’s content than the non-doodling subjects.
Olins enjoys doodling during her classes and describes it as “daydreaming on paper.”
Similarly, many South students find that doodling can be an effective method of expression in school.
For some students, doodling is both a relief and distraction from boredom in classes they find too long or un-engaging; freshman Noah Rivkin thinks students doodle simply because “they aren’t interested in what’s being said.”
Junior Amaya Abadia-Manthei, however, enjoys doodling for its artistic value. Unlike many others who scribble or color on handouts, she draws intricate designs and characters that completely cover her page. She explained that her doodles include real objects, such as eyes and clothing, over-dramatized to the point of fantasy. She also draws characters, like Andrew Jackson and Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series. “If I have a pencil or pen in my hand for note-taking, I have to be doing something with it,” Abadia-Manthei said.
Even when she does not focus on her drawing, sophomore Aley Lewis’ doodles are more than random scribbles. “I draw mainly when I’m feeling a certain emotion, and then I draw about that feeling. It’s something I do subconsciously,” Lewis said. “I draw peace signs and symbols that mean something to me,” she said.
Some students even have trademark doodles that they repeat and improve. Lewis usually repeats the same drawings over and over again. “I usually draw the same thing because I want to perfect [my doodle],” she said.
Though doodling is interpreted differently by everyone — it can be a means of expression, a tool to avoid distraction, or, in Olin's case, cause for a teacher to become angry — some teachers and students see it as more than just a way to pass time. “Generally doodling isn’t numbers and letters, it’s curves and cartoons, and people who express themselves through visual art benefit from them,” Russell said. “Not to mention, they are always very interesting and fun.”
