Lately I have been considering and discussing writing a blog post on God billboards, but I can't seem to get around to actually doing it.

As I write this, I'm switching back and forth between my blog tab, a tab with a New York Times piece on concentration, a tab with a New York Times article on genius, and facebook. The first article explains that I can't actually be reading/writing all this at once and am losing productivity in the process; the second tells me that if I were to just focus on writing, I might become a great writer; and facebook is so much fun that I'll never get around to developing "a deliberate, strenuous and boring practice routine" and stick to it and become a genius.

What gets me is this:
1) In order to reach one's full potential, one must be able to concentrate.
2) In order to concentrate, one must be able to tune out other stimuli.
3) I can't tune out facebook. How are my students supposed to tune out hunger, abuse, violence, drug- and alcohol-addicted parents, poverty, and just being teenagers?

I always, always tell my kids that they CAN develop their brains into anything. They can be smart enough to do anything, to become anything. They are not inherently anything--anyone can shape themselves into anything.
I do believe that whole-heartedly. I COULD tune out facebook, and they could tune out reality.

I also know, that my genius kids, all else tuned out, will have to work 7 million times harder to be on par with their wealthier counterparts. They've already lost years of practice and learning that others have on them. And it kills me how much potential and intellect is lost--cures for cancer and hilarious comedy shows and historical perspective--because so few of them believe that the 7 million times harder work will actually pay off. Because so few of them even know what that--genius, discovery, innovation--looks like. And, of course, my students are NOT stupid, even the most difficult of them, they've just focused on all the more immediately stimulating things.

I don't know really what more to say. It's just heartbreaking. As a teacher, it's basically my point to refocus them. But to this effect, and to their overwhelmed brains and bodies, I'm kind of beside the point. What I teach is often no where near the point. And for many of my little kiddies, there is no point.