Slate Thinks Students Should Focus Harder
This is a travel week, my dear readers. I’ll be back in full force on Monday. For today, I would like to share this Slate.com article about how students need to learn to focus.
I see both sides of this. Yes, paying extended attention is
a skill. Yes, students should be encouraged to learn it. On the other hand, boring
material (by the high standards of the day) may need improvement.
Nobody has trouble sitting for two hours through a good movie.
Technical, unfamiliar material will put anybody to sleep after 20 minutes. That
is not students’ fault. Most of the problem is that students have seen better
material that was also informative. A student who can pay attention but does
not is just giving an honest evaluation of the material.
Absorbing material passively should be broken up unto 20 minute bits followed by application. That
helps people absorb the knowledge.
The best part of this article is the first comment: “tl;dr”
Student Pro Tips 