that we celebrate “multitasking” and medicate a large proportion of our children against attention deficit?

i have realized in this past month of teaching that the major theme for this spring is concentration.  even for my best artists, it is almost impossible to get them to do two things in succession.  they do not know how to listen AND THEN act on direct instructions they hear.  on the other hand, they are aware that there are motions to be gone through: it’s just that these motions don’t seem to connect to any kind of outcome.

they are not happy with their own projects at first and call them “ugly,” but they were unable to even begin to follow the simplest step-by-step instructions in order to create them ("fold the paper in half."--It’s hard! I need help!) they tend to quit first, but not understand that quitting means stopping and leaving arts and crafts to go do something else.  most of all, they are not able to realize that it entirely is up to them whether they “finish” their projects or not and, if they don’t spend their time concentrating on what they’re doing, they won’t get “finished.” even when I stress that “finished” is just as far as we get by the end of our allotted time, they continue to imagine some “finished” point and then never to get there.  only when i point out to them now beautiful their projects are just they way they are do they then begin to “like” them.  they cannot tell me what they like, or don’t like, about them.  but every one reports that they had “fun.”

what kind of world are we showing to our kids?  one in which there is always too much to accomplish anything at all, and no clues how any kind accomplishment might even be attempted?  and then we medicate them to be able to function within these parameters?