“Although people seem to be unaware of it
to-day, the development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and
almost the sole interest of studies.
“… every time that a human being succeeds
in making an effort of attention with the sole idea of increasing his grasp of
truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping it, even if his effort produces
no visible fruit.”
From “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a
View to the Love of God,”
by Simone Weil
**
Hey grey-beard, hey Mr. Luddite, hey you-who-can’t-even-operate-a-smartphone,
I don’t think you have a right to tell me what to do with my phone!
Well, here goes anyway. I expect to be mocked; I stand ready for a barrage
of rotten tomatoes; I suspect I may be banished from the kingdom.
I hereby announce that in the
fall of 2017, the #1 expectation we want for our high school students is this:
to put your phone away while doing your school work.
Our 16-and-17-year-olds taking
driver’s education in another wing at our school step into their classroom and
sees signs like these:
|
DON’T
DRIVE
DISTRACTED
|
DANGER
HANG UP
AND DRIVE
|
NO TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
IT’S THE LAW
|
My English classroom would match that – with homemade signs
like these:
|
DON’T
STUDY
DISTRACTED
|
DANGER
HANG UP
AND STUDY
|
NO TEXTING WHILE STUDYING
IT’S MY LAW!!!
|
We begin the school year trying
to help our students establish good habits.
I want my students to focus. Just as I wanted the soccer, tennis, and
baseball players I coached to focus.
Does anyone see Nolan Arenado checking his cell phone between pitches? Do we find Serena Williams reading texts
between points? The best are
focused. True as well for successful
students.
How good to see, this summer, at my
tennis club, the mountain of smartphones placed in a box—before the kids went out to take lessons. Hard enough to hit a ball rifled at you—if
your eyes glance to the side to see if you have message. If the tennis pro can ask the boys and girls
to put the damn phone away for an hour, can’t teachers do the same?
Over the past six years – a downward spiral
Tutoring high school students
these past six years I see how increasingly difficult it is for them to avoid
checking their phone, eyes darting off to look … and now even taking calls as I
sit with them–in spite of the repeated requests from the adults in the room—not now, not here, please hold off until
this session is over….
On the other hand, even an
old-timer realizes that in 2017 more students are using the cell phones to find
their homework, to do class work, and to read assigned articles—even books—for
class. Making it only harder to know if
students at the table ten feet away are on task—or not.
Some educators act like we’ve
already lost the battle. In a Denver classroom
last year I saw a teacher ask his students: “Please take the buds out of your
ears” (i.e. would you be so kind to detach from your phone for a few minutes)—to
watch and listen to the video he was showing them. Heaven forbid that we might inconvenience
them ….
This won’t be easy; we are
talking about something close to addiction.
Some might beg off—you’re asking
me to cut off my right hand! (after a summer when their smartphone seldom
left it).
I have no answers. I only raise
my voice in protest at what I see, confident that we will help our students
learn—and live—by working on the critical habit: to pay attention. Age does not equal wisdom, but 67 years on
this planet has at least taught me that to do anything well, we need to focus.
Three ideas. One: the faculty reads and
discusses Simone Weil’s essay ““Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies
with a View to the Love of God”—the most powerful essay I know on
studying. Yes, it has a larger theme–on prayer,
and paying attention to God. But please
look at the excerpts in Addendum A. A secular school can still explore what
truths they find in her words—and to ask what more it can do to address this
vital skill. (And perhaps to develop a
larger habit of character – the ability to pay attention … to another human
being.)
A
second idea: consider what some schools are doing to help students learn to focus.
See - “Why students need to sit up and pay attention,” by Eva Moskowitz,
founder and chief executive officer of Success Academy Charter Schools, in Addendum B.) Or talk with high school students about a series of articles on texting and driving--see Addendum C--and ask if they see the relevance for their lives, and their studies.
A third idea: schools and teachers
can provide a multitude of examples – I offer a few here (Addendum D) – to emphasize that no,
multi-tasking while studying – or driving, is not a virtue.
But to develop the tremendously difficult art of focusing well—yes,
that is a virtue.
Addendum A
Excerpts from Simone
Weil’s essay “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the
Love of God” (probably written in 1942; part of her collection of essays, Waiting
for God).
The Key to a Christian conception of studies is the
realisation that prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the
attention of which the soul is capable towards God. The quality of attention
counts for much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up
for it. …
Although people seem to be unaware of it to-day, the
development of the faculty of attention forms the real object and almost the
sole interest of studies. Most school tasks have a certain intrinsic interest
as well, but such an interest is secondary. All tasks which really call upon
the power of attention are interesting for the same reason and to an almost
equal degree….
If we have no aptitude or natural taste for geometry this
does not mean that our faculty for attention will not be developed by wrestling
with a problem or studying a theorem. On the contrary it is almost an
advantage.
It does not even matter much whether we succeed in finding
the solution or understanding the proof, although it is important to try really
hard to do so. Never in any case whatever is a genuine effort of the attention
wasted. It always has its effect on the spiritual plane and in consequence on
the lower one of the intelligence, for all spiritual light lightens the mind.
**
… Quite apart from explicit religious belief, every time
that a human being succeeds in making an effort of attention with the sole idea
of increasing his grasp of truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping
it, even if his effort produces no visible fruit. An Eskimo story explains the
origin of light as follows: “In the eternal darkness, the crow, unable to find
any food, longed for light, and the earth was illumined.” If there is a real
desire, if the thing desired is really light, the desire for light produces it.
There is a real desire when there is an effort of attention.
**
Attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it
detached, empty and ready to be penetrated by the object. It means holding in
our minds, within reach of this thought, but on a lower level and not in
contact with it, the diverse knowledge we have acquired which we are forced to
make use of. Our thought should be in relation to all particular and already
formulated thoughts as a man on a mountain who, as he looks forward, sees also
below him, without actually looking at them, a great many forests and plains.
Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready
to receive in its naked truth the object which is to penetrate it.
**
(To put our studies to their right use we must) take great
pains to examine squarely and to contemplate attentively and slowly each school
task in which we have failed, seeing how unpleasing and second-rate it is,
without seeking any excuse or overlooking any mistake or any of our tutor’s
corrections, trying to get down to the origin of each fault. There is a great
temptation to do the opposite, to give a sideways glance at the corrected
exercise if it is bad, and to hide it forthwith. Most of us do this nearly
always. We have to withstand this temptation. Incidentally, moreover, nothing
is more necessary for academic success, because, despite all our efforts, we
work without making much progress when we refuse to give our attention to the
faults we have made and our tutor’s corrections….
**
Most often attention is confused with a kind of muscular
effort. If one says to one’s pupils: “Now you must pay attention,” one sees
them contracting their brows, holding their breath, stiffening their muscles.
If after two minutes they are asked what they have been paying attention to,
they cannot reply. They have not been paying attention. They have been
contracting their muscles…
Will power, the kind that, if need be, makes us set our
teeth and endure suffering, is the principal weapon of the apprentice engaged
in manual work. But contrary to the usual belief, it has practically no place
in study. The intelligence can only be led by desire. For there to be desire,
there must be pleasure and joy in the work. The intelligence only grows and
bears fruit in joy. The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as
breathing is in running. Where it is lacking there are no real students, but
only poor caricatures of apprentices who, at the end of their apprenticeship,
will not even have a trade….
**
Twenty minutes of concentrated, untired attention is
infinitely better than three hours of the kind of frowning application which
leads us to say with a sense of duty done: “I have worked well!” …
**
In every school exercise there is a special way of waiting
upon truth, setting our hearts upon it, yet not allowing ourselves to go out in
search of it. There is a way of giving our attention to the data of a problem
in geometry without trying to find the solution, or to the words of a Latin or
Greek text without trying to arrive at the meaning, a way of waiting, when we
are writing, for the right word to come of itself at the end of our pen, while
we merely reject all inadequate words.
Our first duty towards school-children and students is to
make known this method to them, not only in a general way but in the particular
form which bears in each exercise.
**
by Eva
Moskowitz, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 2015
Moskowitz, the founder and chief
executive officer of Success Academy Charter Schools, writes of the
expectations Paul Fucaloro set for his classes that have become the standard
for Success Academy classrooms. She acknowledges the criticism of the approach
– even from two of her children who attend Success! – but she is persuaded
Fucaloro’s approach has proved effective:
As Paul
repeatedly preached to me, it’s morally wrong to let a child choose whether to
pay attention, because many will make the wrong choice and we can’t let them
slip through the cracks. So if a student had trouble paying attention, he’d
move him to the front of the class, call his parents, keep him after school to
practice. Whatever it took. Paul was relentless.
Some critics say
that it’s hard for young children to focus. True. But it’s our job to teach
them this. Recently, I was at a news conference at which I was asked why
Success has strict rules regarding behavior. As I answered, the reporters
didn’t stare off into space, look bored or fiddle with things. Because they
were focusing. A school that fails to teach students this necessary skill isn’t
doing right by them.
Addendum C
Distracted driving
Too many 16- and 17-year-olds have
personal experiences that make the road signs on distracted driving (page 1)
tragically relevant. They might not heed
the warnings – perhaps they are busy on their cell phone, zipping by above the
speed limit, to even notice—but when they do, the words seem to be, well, at
least about something real.
They are likely to be offended by any comparison between driving and
studying—and focus. Come on, they will say, showing us the txt that just came in from
Mom, this is not dangerous! I just need to see if and when my Mom is
going to pick me up….
Dangerous? Well, at least worth
discussing. I’d love to see teachers
explore if and when the comparison has at least some validity. A few articles
and headlines to get the conversation started.
1.
“an epidemic of distracted driving … People on phones,
on their devices.”
To be sure, government officials and
insurance executives are nearly unanimous in fingering the smartphone as one of
the main culprits in the recent uptick in fatalities — both in Colorado and
across the country. As smartphone ownership has become the norm, the perils of
distracted driving are overwhelming the advantages of newer, safer vehicles,
these experts say.
“What the data tell me is we have an
epidemic of distracted driving,” the executive director of the Colorado
Department of Transportation (CDOT) told The Colorado Statesman earlier this
year. “People on phones, on their devices.”
“Why highway fatalities are going to fall,”
by Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post, May 21,
2017. http://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/19/why-highway-fatalities-which-are-rising-are-going-to-fall/
2.
“Cellphone ban effort fueled by bike death” (Denver Post, 11/20/08)
3.
“Devices target districted driving” (USA TODAY, 1/17/12)
4.
“Teen driving deaths: New increased causes concern” (Denver Post, 10/22/13)
5.
“Aurora senior turns family tragedy into serious life
lesson,” (Aurora
Sentinel, 1/12/17)
“Rangeview’s ZIP Code, 80013, tops the list for
distracted teen driving accidents in the metro area, according to JJ’s LIGHT, a
student-led nonprofit organization that aims to combat distracted driving and
raise money for family members of those affected by it. That data was compiled
by Children’s Hospital Colorado….
“The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention report that each day ‘over eight people
(were) killed and 1,161 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a
distracted driver.’ And the federal website dedicated to distracted driving
awareness reports that 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 more injured in
crashes involving distracted drivers in 2014.
6. “Distracted driving caused 40 crashes each day
in Colorado last year, and CDOT wants it to stop” (Denver Post, 4/4/2017) – by Hayley Sanchez
Excerpts:
“With a surge of 605 roadway fatalities in
2016 and Colorado officials calling distracted driving an ‘epidemic,’ the
Colorado Department of Transportation has joined a national movement
recognizing April as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
“‘I
think people don’t understand the real danger when they take their eyes off the
road,’ CDOT spokesman Sam Cole said. ‘We know that an accident happens in an
instant, and unless you’re ready to respond, it could have tragic consequences.
If you’re going 65, 70 miles per hour and take your eyes off the road to read a
message, that’s the equivalent of driving the length of a football field, and a
lot can happen in that time.’ …
“In
a survey conducted by CDOT in November, 22 percent of Colorado drivers admitted
to reading messages while driving, 64 percent used some sort of entertainment,
and 33 percent talked on a handheld phone.
“It’s
less about the law and more about the impact of what somebody distracted while
driving can have. It’s not about writing tickets and punishing them,” he said.
“It’s because too many people get killed in car crashes every year. I want
people to do whatever they have to do to focus.” http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/04/distracted-driving-caused-40-crashes-each-day-in-colorado-last-year-and-cdot-wants-it-to-stop/
7.
“Phone addiction has unleashed a deadly toll” (Denver Post, 4/9/17)
Addendum D
Good Quotes on Focus
and Paying Attention
ART
“… is an act of total attention”
Photographer Dorothea Lange
celebrated in PBS “American Masters” film, Aug. 29, 2014
Family, friends and colleagues
recall not just her dedication to her art (and the negative fallout for family
members), but also her ability to open the artist’s world to others.
Her granddaughter recalls the
way Lange taught her to see — really see — for the first time, focusing on a
handful of stones and shells at the beach. She demanded her young
granddaughter’s full focus on the
moment. “Yes, I see them, but do you see them?”
“And then she took the
picture.”
Throughout, quotes from Lange
illuminate her intentions and interpretations. Her commitment to “getting lost”
in her work — a “mental disengagement,” she said, so that the artist
“annihilates oneself” and becomes “only an observer” — is the artist’s profound
recurring theme.
“To me, beauty appears when
one feels deeply, and art is an act of
total attention,” she said. http://www.denverpost.com/2014/08/27/photographer-dorothea-lange-celebrated-in-pbs-american-masters-film/
LIFE
From “Man’s Nature is
Good,” by Mencius – chapter 9
“Now chess-playing is but a small art, but
without his whole mind being given, and his will bent, to it, a man
cannot succeed at it. Chess Ch'iû is the best chess-player in all the kingdom.
Suppose that he is teaching two men to play. The one gives to the subject his whole mind
and bends to it all his will, doing nothing but listening to Chess Ch'iû. The
other, although he seems to be listening to him, has his whole mind running on
a swan which he thinks is approaching, and wishes to bend his bow, adjust the
string to the arrow, and shoot it. Although he is learning along with the
other, he does not come up to him. Why?— because his intelligence is not equal?
Not so.”
From “’Present’ as a
State of Mind,” by Ben Zimmer. The Wall
Street Journal, Oct. 7, 2016
“The appeal of ‘being present’ is
especially sharp at a time when our attention is diverted by countless electronic
distractions. Perpetual inattention can lead to a state of mind that’s some
scholars oxymoronically call ‘absent presence’: being there but not really
being there.
“To be fully present can now men
shutting off our screens and engaging directly with ourselves and those around
us, in the spirit of quiet reflection.”
On the value of getting back to horse riding after a
terrible fall and reconstructive surgery on her knee:
“My brain is always going,
multi-tasking, but when you ride, you really can’t multitask or you’ll kill
yourself. You have to pay attention to your horse.”
SPORTS
Homegrown
help for Rockies
Freeland
making big-league debut six years after starring for TJ
The Denver Post, by Patrick Saunders
The
announcement that Freeland would be the starting pitcher for the Rockies in
their home opener sent his friends and former teammates scrambling for tickets.
Humphrey’s Eaglecrest players will be at Coors Field too.
And, of course, members
of Freeland’s family will be in attendance -- including his father, Do; his mother, Susan; and his older brother, Colin.
He steadily moved up
the minor-league chain, and hoped to get a late call-up to the Rockies
last September. That didn’t happen, only stoking his motivation to make
the big-league roster this spring.
Those
who know Freeland best say that composure will serve him well Friday when
50,000 fans pack Coors Field.
“He doesn’t allow a lot of distractions to
creep in,” his big brother said. “He’s always been that way. It kind of sets
him apart.”
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