If you have brought up children, or taught them as I have, then there is something that you have doubtless said scores of times a day -- "Pay attention!" Yet this can be the hardest thing for a child to do. Their minds are like monkeys swinging quickly from one branch of thought or feeling to another. And cellphones, iPods and numberless other handheld "weapons of mass distraction" have made it that much harder for our children to focus.
This is a real problem in school, where achievement depends on one's ability to concentrate on the work. It is not just the presence of electronic devices in the classroom, something which naturally alarms a lot of teachers. More damaging are the habits which they inculcate in the young -- the surfing mentality which is always looking restlessly toward the next image, message or sensation.
Granted, this is nothing new. Before there were Blackberries and gaming devices, there were paper airplanes and spitballs. Kids have always found ways to distract themselves from the task at hand -- and adults, too. It is a challenge for all of us to keep our attention focused productively in the here and the now. But we all know from experience that our success and happiness depend on it. To learn something new, to accomplish anything worthwhile, to appreciate a work of art, to think deeply and creatively about a problem, we need to be able to focus and to keep our attention from straying.
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Richard Schiffmanhttp://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Our-Children-Should-Be-by-Richard-Schiffman-120513-421.html |