Website owner:  James Miller

The ability to concentrate --- the key to success in school studies

   Children in school (grade school, high school and college) vary 
   greatly in how well they do in their studies.  These 
   differences are attributed to many things such as differences 
   in motivation, interest, etc..  How about "ability to 
   concentrate"?  Isn't this the underlying key to the whole 
   thing?  Certainly it was in my case.  And the problem was that 
   I couldn't concentrate just anywhere;  I had to have special 
   conditions in order to concentrate --- I had to be alone in a 
   quiet place.  Otherwise distractions would prevent my mind from 
   functioning properly.  I couldn't concentrate in the classroom 
   or in study hall or "on my feet".  Shouldn't the importance of 
   concentration be appreciated in schools?  Shouldn't attempts be 
   made to help individual students set up good conditions and 
   environments for concentration?  Interest and motivation on the 
   part of students are very important but doesn't their 
   importance lie in their effect of causing the student to "want 
   to concentrate"?  i.e. isn't concentration the real goal and 
   interest simply the vehicle for accomplishing it?  Isn't "the 
   ability to concentrate" the mark that best distinguishes the 
   good student, mathematician, scientist or professional person? 

   May 1977