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Attention Is an Achievement | AAC&U

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In his poem “Frost at Midnight,” the nineteenth-century British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflects on his childhood education. His description should resonate with anyone whose mind has wandered in class despite determined efforts to stay focused: Awed by the stern preceptor’s face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book: Save if the door half opened, and I snatched A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, My play-mate when we both were clothed alike! The young Coleridge has learned, as so many of us have, to fix his eyes with “mock study” on his book while he daydreams; at the same time, he hopes desperately for someone—anyone—to come into the room and interrupt the daily lessons of his “stern preceptor.” We tend to think about the problem of distraction in the classroom as a modern one. Educators might battle digital devices for students’ attention, but our literary and phil

Share In his poem “Frost at Midnight,” the nineteenth-century British writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflects on his childhood education. His description should resonate with anyone whose mind has wandered in class despite determined efforts to stay focused: Awed by the stern preceptor’s face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book: Save if the door half opened, and I snatched A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, My play-mate when we both were clothed alike! The young Coleridge has lea

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