“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
~ Simone Weil
School starts. Hallways are full. The noise and chatter and clanging of lockers makes the building feel more alive than it has felt all summer. It is fun to watch students as they return to school. Some are hesitant and uncertain. Some are too excited for their own good (looking at you, junior high). Many are alive with joy at reconnecting with friends they haven’t seen for too long. Students, weirdly, seem visibly happy to be back around their teachers. We all feel it. It is good to have students back.
In 2020/2021, researchers surveyed 21,000 high school students across America. They found 75% of students felt isolated (see Eckert, 2023 for more on this study). I believe that attention is at the root of the problem.
When teachers give attention to students, they feel it. And when we only see them in passing they, unfortunately, feel that, too. Too many students feel isolated and alone, and too many adults feel busy and distracted. We know that a significant contributing factor to a student’s sense of isolation is whether or not he or she feels known by even a single teacher in the building.
Certain teachers at FRCS are highly skilled in the art of pausing their own hectic schedule in order to genuinely see students (Mr. Schulz and Mama Payne are two very strong examples, but I could list many more). We should learn from them how to more freely give away our attention to others. Students, may you learn more than classroom lessons from your teachers. May you learn from them how to pause the distractions of life and choose people instead.
May we be the kind of community in which we freely and easily give our attention.
