Distractions

Distractions

Once upon a time, I had a student named Charles. One day, as Charles worked at his desk, the principal announced an emergency dismissal over the loudspeaker. All of my students leaped up to grab their school bags, shrieking and rushing about bumping into each other as I tried to restore order. Charles sat placidly at his desk working away.  

About five minutes into this scene, Charles looked up. I caught his attention and told him that he had better pack up. “Oh,” he said and gathered his belongings obediently.

Charles is memorable because he was an unusual student. He was an average student with average abilities and average looks but in one thing he was very strange: nothing distracted him.  

What distracts students? 

Everything. 

You name it; they’ll be distracted by it. I have seen girls spend days gazing at the fingernails they glued on for a flower girl stint, picking them off one by one, arranging them in patterns, holding them up to catch the light, coloring them with markers and pasting them on pencils.  

A ruler is a magical toy. Not only can you measure things with it, but it also serves as a propeller, a drumstick or a weapon to bop your neighbor on the noggin.  

Any and every item in a desk can draw attention for some kids. One of my guys loved to arrange his pencils, crayons and erasers in battle formation. Another pulled apart each page of her notebook to make feathers of paper. These she rolled and stored in her pencil box for future experiments. A laugh in the hall, a bird swooping by the window, a sniffle, a burp, a gust of wind, all pull eyes and minds away from a lesson. Don’t even mention what happens when the first flakes of snow flutter down.

Teachers work hard to keep attention. We plan dazzling lessons filled with wonderful learning tools. Unit blocks are great for teaching place value. Unfortunately, they also encourage tower building. Plastic clocks help students learn to tell time; but isn’t it fascinating how the hands go round and round? Highlighters boldly mark important facts and also connect to make really long and colorful pointers. Glue works great on paper and fingers. What fun to peel it off!  

Kids see the world in a wholly different way. Where adults see a tool, kids find a toy. Scotch tape offers endless possibilities. Wrap it around a pencil for a unique grip. Tape six crayons together and draw a rainbow. Pull it over your lips and make your friends giggle. Stickers can decorate a nose or an ear or become a finger-tip puppet. 

It’s a magical and distracting world. I found myself banning bracelets, hair ribbons, watches, pencil-sharpeners and key rings. Keep them home I cautioned. Put them in your school bag. Look at the board. Focus on your book. Listen. Watch. Pay attention.  

But it is a losing battle. Kids will be distracted. I find it amazing that they learn as much as they do. With all the wonderful diversions the world offers, a student somehow still learns to read, to figure, to write and to wonder. What a wonderful brain a child has! 

A friend of mine taught in a rural school in Africa. Whenever a truck or tractor rumbled by, her students rushed over to the windows to watch. Motor vehicles are rare in that community without roads and her students would debate make and model and discuss possible destinations. It always took awhile to refocus attention on her lesson.

One day, a donkey cart rambled by. The students rushed to the windows. 

“Wait a minute,” said my friend.  “Surely you’ve seen donkey carts before.”

  

“Yes,” her students agreed.  “But we have never seen that one.”