Facebook is getting a lot of attention these daysâŚfor how they keep our attention. While the social and political implications of what platforms do and donât do is very important, the story also draws attention to⌠attention.
Attention is a finite resourceâwe can âspendâ it or âinvestâ itâbut we do not get more of it. (ADD and ADHD are poorly namedâno one has a deficit of attentionâour modern education just preferences certain ways of attending over others.) Every moment we give our attention to one thing, we cannot give it to something else. And to make things, to do hard things, to do important things, we need to be able to direct our own attention. (Social media companies and their advertisers do not serve our interests in this regard!)
At Waterloo, our work must include helping students âcommandâ their own attention. This explains why our classes are over two hours longâ a long time for teenage brains and bodies! But longer periods create space for learning that short sprints do not.
I chatted with some visiting students after spending the day at Waterloo to hear about their visit. I am always eager to hear how students from traditional school schedules experience Waterloo. They told me that in one classâan Intro to Lawâtime blew by as they helped students examine the elements of a court case. In the otherâData Scienceâthey often struggled to understand what students were doing as they examined data and sought to understand what story it tellsâin that setting, paying attention was harder.
Both experiences are instructiveâwe benefit from attention-engaging learning activities that go deep over long periods of time. And we benefit from practicing hard, difficult things where attention is the hard choice. Like long runs and workouts to increase physical endurance, long hard slogs are practiceâwith encouragement and coachingâthat increases our ability to command our attentionâto do great things.
Do great things. What are we meant to do? To do great things. For those we love. For those around us. For those in need. This is what school is for: to prepare each student to be able to do the great things that each student has the ability to do. Most donât know yet, what those things should be. (Do you know for yourself?) There are many skills to learn, much knowledge to gain, even more wisdom to acquire. And, then there is attention to deepen, to command, to holdâto wrestle away from facebook, TikTok, instagram, and the likeâin order to do my great things.