It’s homework time and your 11-year-old is at the kitchen table, ear buds in, doing his homework. From time to time he starts moving to the music. You wonder if he’s really able to concentrate on what he’s doing if he’s listening to his favorite band. Do you:
1) INSIST HE PUT THE MUSIC AWAY
2) IGNORE IT
According to Colin Ellard, author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, But Get Lost in the Mall “If we have to deal with too much information at once, then it’s going to make us more likely to leave the here-and-now, to lose contact with what it is that we should be paying attention to. Likewise, Ellard says, when a student listens to music with lyrics that he knows, there is no way for him to simply concentrate on what he is doing. The lyrics create an underlying “conversation” in his brain as he mulls over thoughts for his work. He becomes less present, unfocused, “lost in space.”
If your child’s grades are not up to his abilities, you may want to rethink your choice to allow him music while he works. Many parents today put away their child’s music, cell phone and facebook access until homework is satisfactorily complete.