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COPYRIGHT 2003 Prufrock Press
"Grant me intention, purpose, and design--That's near enough for me to the Divine'--Robert Frost, from "Accidentally on Purpose"
As I was looking for relevant material for the Adolescent Psychology course I teach, my attention was drawn to a book by Thomas Cottle, Mind Fields: Adolescent Consciousness in a Culture of Distraction (2001). Frost's quotation is in the frontispiece, and his words seemed so relevant to the topic I intended to develop in this issue's parent column and is stated with so much elegance, that I couldn't resist using it to initiate an exploration of the roles of distraction, attention, exploration, and reflection in our attempts, as both parents and teachers, to foster the development of gifted potential in our children.
Distraction
So, when does this distraction factor begin in the lives of children and in what ways does it become an influence for children and adolescents, particularly those who may already exhibit a path toward great potential? Is it something we as parents need to be concerned about as we plan activities and guidance for our highly capable children? It's become a useful concept to consider in planning one's class presentations even at the university level because there is this idea that lesson presentations must be entertaining (or certainly attention-getting) to hold students' interest. How do we distinguish between distraction and learning, or between focusing the learners' interest so that they are as intrigued by the topic as you are without losing the thread of the lesson intended? Is distraction a societal attitude that has begun in infancy, been promoted in childhood, and come full blown in the arena of adolescent and adult learning? Does distraction lead to flawed attention? Is having fun while learning a good or a bad thing, and is the avenue to fun at learning only gained through distracting strategies?
Recent events beyond Cottle's book furthered my interest in the yin and yang of distraction. The first event occurred in a place where children interact with colorful, electronically operated play equipment: a Chuck E. Cheese establishment. As two of my young grandchildren participated along with many other children their age, the dilemma that Cottle seems to have been referring to--disruptive distraction--came to mind, an environment even more chaotic given our society's preoccupation with terrorism, war, and instant news from around the world.
In the somewhat frenetic atmosphere of the Chuck E. Cheese setting, the fearless 2-year-old took off immediately to explore the vast panorama of approximately 30 electronically driven machines he might choose for manipulating his physical interactions. The 3-year-old sister, more introspective in temperament, retreated to a safe observation point where she could make her choices from afar. The next hour or so was spent alternating between some pizza-related refreshments and the chosen activities, some of which seemed to this observer to be more...
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