Concentration

My friend teaches 7th and 8th graders math. She teaches the advanced math classes. She met with her principle recently for a performance review. She was informed that children have no more than a ten minute attention span AND all of her activities must rotate so that she can stay in that attention span. "Get them up and have them move, do an art project, have something different at the board." We are talking about 8th graders in Advanced Standing Algebra about to go into high school. UGH... I couldn't believe this was a teaching directive.

This reminds me of the Montessori work cycle and false fatigue. In my training program we learned about long work periods and false fatigue. How children settle into the concentrated work only after working on the easier or relaxing work, and they go through a period of unsettled behavior midway through the work period. I've seen this so many times. I've observed in schools with work periods as short as 45 minutes and so many transitions. Practical life is a huge draw for the children there.

In my own classroom, I was able to stretch the work period to over two hours and most of the advanced work was in the last 45 minutes. I always wanted to make it longer still. On the rare days that I did, it was fantastic!

What in the world is it that makes adults think that children can not concentrate? Have you watched a child with an art project? Or working on making a book or a puzzle? In the Montessori classroom there are a number of jobs - spelling with the movable alphabet, pinpunching shapes, the hundred board that can easily take much longer than ten minutes and these are by the littlest children!

What about when an older child reads a book? Yesterday one child sat enjoying her math assignment. It was just the right amount of difficulty to be a puzzle for her. My other daughter decided to clean - she concentrated on cleaning and organizing the bathroom for close to two hours.

We should encourage concentration - not assume they can't!