The Habit of Attention

This week we are reading the sections Some Habits of Mind and Habit of Attention in Home Education.1 In these sections, Charlotte Mason emphasizes once again the importance of habit formation, and then describes the importance of one habit in particular: Attention.

She defined attention as “the act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject at hand”2 and maintained that it is a critical habit for a child to develop. Charlotte Mason believed strongly that attention is not a “faculty of the mind,” but a habit parents and teachers should help children cultivate. She argued that children may have natural or intellectual abilities, but those abilities only go as far as their attention does.

The 2025 book Teach Like a Champion: Guide to the Science of Reading describes seven key evidence-based arguments about what they call “post-phonics reading”. Attention is the very first argument of the book. The authors say almost exactly what Charlotte Mason said in Home Education: “ You only learn what you are paying attention to. Attention is always a prerequisite to learning.”3

And just like Charlotte Mason, they call attention a habit. Drawing from research about the brain’s neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself depending on how it is used), they make a very Charlotte-Mason-sounding claim: “Attentional capacity is affected by our habits and is subject to change.”4

In our high-tech era, there are more diversions of our attention than Charlotte Mason could have even imagined. The authors of the Teach Like a Champion book warn about the way screens, especially smart phones, are rewiring our brains. Switching rapidly between information sources on our smartphones actually trains our brains to seek distraction. We are building a habit.

“The more we read in a state of distracted half-attention, the more we come to hunger for new stimulus, the more distracted we are as readers, and the more we degrade our capacity to read with a focus for a sustained period of time….It’s not just that smartphones make us read less; it’s that they cause us to read differently.”5

Screens cause us to read less. But they also cause us to read less deeply. And they actually change the way our brains work so that poor reading and attention become ingrained habits.6

“At first it is the cellphone itself that distracts him but after a time it’s as if the cellphone were inside him. His brain has rewired to seek out distractions, even when the phone is not providing them.”7

So what’s a modern mama and teacher to do??

Follow Charlotte Mason’s advice. It may have come from the 19th century, but it very much applies to our 21st century attention crisis. Help your child, from a young age (she recommends beginning in infancy) to build the habit of sustained attention. While there are certainly differences in how our brains work and focus, all of us (parents and teachers included) can rewire our brains and create new habits.

“Making a habit of concentrating for sustained periods of time makes us better at concentrating for sustained periods of time.”8

Changing habits and increasing attention will certainly take a lot of effort and time. But it is worth it. As we read last week in Beauty in the Word, “it is the child’s own quality of attention that is the key to the learning process.”9

If we want to truly learn, then we must truly attend, because our attention is really our desire: “it is the desire for light, for truth, for understanding, for possession.” When we are nurturing this skill of attention, in our children or in ourselves, we are doing the work that truly “makes students of us.”10

This is how we truly learn. With our attention. But it’s not just learning that requires attention. We need attention to truly pray. To truly see. To truly live.

It’s a habit worth building.

RESOURCES & DOWNLOADS

• The Science of Habit: You can read my previous article about habit formation here:

• Beauty in the Word: Beauty in the Word can be purchased in the MEC Bookshop. The eBook is also available on Hoopla.

• Teach Like a Champion: Guide to the Science of Reading: This book describes the current research about the role of attention in education, especially its role in reading.

• Red, White, & Blueberry No-Bake Fruit Kabobs (paid subscribers): This patriotic visual recipe will help children of all ages and abilities put something festive on the table for the Fourth of July!

• Printable Bookmark (paid subscribers): The bookmark for Beauty in the Word has been added to the printable bookmarks page in the Downloads section.