Teaching - The Importance of Attention
The concentration of the mind's energy on one object of thought is attention.
In a state of attention the mind may be likened to the rays of the sun which have been passed through a window. You may let all the rays which can pass through your window fall hour after hour upon the paper lying on your desk, and no marked effects follow. But let the same amount of sunlight be passed through a lens and converged to a point the size of your pencil point, and the paper will at once burst into flame. What the diffused rays could not do in hours or in ages is now accomplished in seconds. Likewise the mind, allowed to scatter over many objects, can accomplish just little, but when withdrawing our thoughts from everything else and concentrating mind on one thing, more can be accomplished in minutes than before in hours. Things which could not be accomplished at all before now become possible.
While attention is no doubt partly a natural gift, yet there is probably no power of the mind more susceptible to training than is attention. And with attention, as with every other power of body and mind, the secret of its development lies in its use. Stated briefly, the only way to train attention is by attending. No amount of theorizing or resolving can take the place of practice in the actual process of attending.
"Now my belief is; and this is a matter upon which I should like to have your opinion, but my own belief is; not that the good body improves the soul, but that the good soul improves the body. What do you say?"
~ Plato
What You Should Know
Habit is one of nature's methods of economizing time and effort, while at the same time securing greater skill and efficiency.
Every training is pathological when stress is laid upon correcting wrong-doing instead of upon forming positive habits.
The ability to see may be improved by education as much as the ability to read, remember, or converse. With many people, not seeing is a habit.
The regular education increases the effectiveness of the conscious reactions of the child. It modifies his instincts, his habits and also improves his social efficiency.
Physical life is only a balance of forces, as spiritual life is a series of choices, and the question is not simply how much intellectual or brain work we are doing. This question cannot justly be considered apart from the other inquiry, of how much appropriate material we are supplying for the use of the brain. We cannot judge whether the amount of force expended be healthful or unhealthful till we know how much force has been and can be generated. There is undoubtedly a limit to this last factor in our problem, but if we do not exceed this limit in our expenditure, it seems unquestionable, that the more brain work we do, the better will it be for the entire system, and the stronger will be our health, this being only our power actively to resist the destructive forces of nature.
Computing
A lot of bad stuff has happened to a lot of people online...Did You Know?
All computer users are exposed to more security risks than they can possibly imagine. Deadbeats, crims, hackers and swindlers prey on unsuspecting victims every second of every day.
Be cautious about opening any attachments! Opening attachments or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them, may contain unexpected files with viruses or malware that your friends or family members didn’t know were there.
Be cautious about Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing! P2P file-sharing allows people to share these kinds of files through an informal network of computers running the same software. Sometimes spyware, malware, or pornography can be hidden in a shared file. If you or your kids download copyrighted material, you could be subject to legal action. It’s important to know and talk to your kids about the security and other risks involved with file-sharing.