Evening star., 1928-04-02
Concentration.


This is to be Concentration week, and
I shall concentrate the weeks articles
upon that most important topic. II
wouldn't be bad idea to make 1t ma
tional custom, like Fire-prevention week,
drawing every ones attention to the
matter of preventing mental waste. But
this kind of concentration cannot be
cooperative affair. Concentration Is
solo performance-you'ye got to roll
your own.
Our Indians share in a widespread
custom of sending boy who is about
to become man off alone to the wilder
ness. or the Jungle, or the mountain top,
where in solitude he can find himself.
It's a sort of concentration ceremony OF
initiation into manhood. and Is wise
with the wisdom of natures people.
Since so many Of us live in distract
ing world, 1t is getting to be harder than
ever to concentrate, to let the rest Of
the world wag and find your place and
your job and stick to it. It's as human
TO hesitate as TO err, and it is only sell
dom true that if you hesitate you are
lost. But it IS emphatically true that
unless you concentrate you are lost
lost In the bewildering mazes or rapids
of distracting temptations. To get any
where you must steer and not drift, and
steering implies concentration. =
Some schools call themselves concen-
tration schools. and there are all sorts
of institutes and courses that claim TO
teach you how to concentrate. They
are correct IN intention. at all events.
Every school and every study Is part OF
the program Of concentration. When
little children are being taught that 3
and make and twice 6 Is IL, you may
think 1t Is an arithmetic lesson. But
that's the least of it. They could pick
I'D that information a few years later
by themselves They are learning 10
concentrate. and these number exercises
are Just convenient tools which happen
to be needed in our kind of lives.
To put it still more simply, these
youngsters are learning a little patience
by way of the game of numbers. There's
many a bright, fidgety kid in the class
for whom that multiplication table
would be child's play II he could only
put his mind to 1t. He has brains
enough, but he hasn't the patience 70
learn. Still better. watch these 8 TO 9
year olds in the sewing class, and the
evenness of the stitches tells the story
Of patience as well as of skill. (All
children. boys as we'll as girls. should
be taught 10 sew. because II is such
good child's exercise in patience, and
useful as welll
1t is natural for children TO fly from
one thing to another. They tire easily,
are easily distracted, and that's the first
clue to many troubles in concentration
later on. You've got to graduate from
the childs type of mind before you can
concentrate on your Job. Whatever We
learn in school or job, We are learning
10 concentrate When the morning bell
rings or the whistle blows. it's a signal
to NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. get set,
ready. go!
But-and It's big "but"--many peo-
pie find 1t especially hard to concen-
trate, which means nothing less than
that they find 1t hard TO work with
their minds. They can play. and they
can fool. and they can dawdle. and they
can dream by the hour; they can drift,
but they can't steer. And why? Wen,
there are a good many why's. and in re-
gard TO some OF them III continue In
our next. But the child'S habit shows
what We have to overcome, before We
learn to concentrate.
You tell that boy to so upstairs and
wash his hands. Before he gets ont Of
the room he has fingered q dozen
things on the way. then he climbs up
the handrail, spies ball he lost yeSter-
day. looks out of the window. gets all
excited because the doorbell rang. for
gets what he went up for. has 70 be
prompted. and when he gets his hands
in the basin there's a zone at the wrist
which shows where the patience and
not the soap and water gave out
He hasn't the concentrating kind of