Doodling in class: Aimless or advantageous

Whether it be a few sloppy scribbles in the corner of a handout or an elaborate pattern that encompasses the entire paper, doodling is any form of careless scribbling that many Aragon students have spent some of their class time doing. While the task seems as if it would be an obvious distraction, more and more researchers claim that doodling actually aids concentration and memory. Some studies have shown that doodling can actually stop a person from daydreaming while listening to a dull lecture or completing a boring task. But does doodling have this effect on Aragon students as well, or is it just as distracting as one would imagine?

Doodling takes a number of different forms among students at Aragon. “[I doodle] pretty much on everything,” says senior Sarah Manning. “Sometimes I’ll just do patterns, like mandalas. Other times I’ll just draw random faces.”

Senior Stephanie Landes says, “If I get really bored, I’ll doodle my teacher…It’s just instinct.” Landes’ doodling is inspired by the art she does outside of school. “I paint a lot,” she says. “I like seeing and drawing.”

Sometimes doodling is really just something to do for students. Manning says, “When I get bored I need something to do with my hands.” Yet doodling actually can and often does have a relaxing effect on students. Manning adds, “If I’m stressed or something, it’ll get my mind off of it.”

Junior Savanna Fuentes says, “I doodle to interest myself. It relaxes me in stressful periods of my life.” For Manning, it’s the casualness of doodling as an art form that’s relaxing. “You don’t have to worry about the finished product. You just do what you want to do.”

Manning adds, “[When doodling], you can kind of practice for what you’d put in a finished piece.” Senior Nicole Barros, who is an Advanced Art student at Aragon, agrees that doodling can transfer over to other areas of art. “It helps you out with making bigger, more detailed pieces of art,” she says. “If you know how to do the simple stuff, it’ll help you to do the more complex stuff.” Barros recalls a project she was assigned in class for which she was required to pick a famous artist to imitate. “Keith Haring was the first person I thought of because he’s a total doodle guy,” she says. “He’s known for doing simple doodles.”

For Barros, doodling is nothing short of beneficial. “Doodling is a good thing,” she says. “Doodling isn’t sleeping. You can doodle and still pay attention.” In fact, doodling actually helps Barros focus. “If…I really can’t focus, I take a break and doodle a little bit.”

Junior Brittany Pisoni agrees. “I doodle when the teacher is talking and I do hear what she says.” Aragon art teacher Kathryn Katcher says, “[Doodling] helps keep me engaged, especially in less engaging activities.”

But for other students, doodling has the opposite effect. “I say I can multitask, but I definitely focus more on what I’m drawing than what the teachers saying, so it’s probably not the best habit,” says Manning.

Landes says, “I doodle when I can’t focus, which is bad because it makes it harder for me to focus.” Landes has even seen some of the long-term consequences of doodling. “There’s been a few times when I was taking a test and I was like ‘I remember the teacher saying something about that but I wasn’t focusing…because I was drawing, so I can’t answer this.” Manning says, “It doesn’t have a huge impact…like grade-wise. It just means I have more work to do.”

While the effect of doodling is split among students, most can agree that doodling is something we can all do. Pisoni says she doodles despite not considering herself an artist. “I’m just not one of those people.” Barros says, “I know people who aren’t the best at art, but they like to [doodle] and still do it, which is good.” “It’s not drawing,” says Katcher. “That’s why toddlers can do it.” She adds, “Doodling is good for the soul.”