If we really want our students to succeed (or anyone really), we need to teach them to attend. We attend when we give something or someone our attention. It’s curious turn of phrase: to attend. To be present. Hopefully, we have all had the experience, at least once in our life, of being listened to. Really listened to: when the other person is not interrupting, not looking at their phone, not abstracted because they’re busy thinking about what they want to say next. Just listening, and we feel heard. They have attended to us. There is no greater compliment anyone can give us than to attend to us. And there is no higher compliment we can give to another person than to give them our full attention. It is why monks meditate. To be present.

And now, when I set an exam or an assignment, I don’t have to make either hard to get a set of very low scores — because the students have not been attentive. They do not read the questions, so they cannot answer them. It is not a matter of intelligence or work ethic, it is a matter of attention.

One of the most important things we can teach our young people then, is to be attentive. And one of the best ways to do that is to teach them to meditate. In meditation, we take our attention away from ourselves and focus entirely on the Other. This might be through a mantra, chanting or even an icon — but we get out of the way. Our whole being is focussed on something or someone else.

It is what artists need to do to create art; what designers need to do to innovate; what scientists need to do while looking down a microscope; cooks; cleaners — anyone who wants to do a good job must focus their attention on something other than themselves.

It seems we’re getting worse at it. And this is a problem because at rock bottom, we are only attentive to what we love. We cannot say we love someone and then not listen to them. We can’t say we love someone and then not pay them any attention.

If we agree that love, or agape, is vital or necessary for our survival as a species, then first we must learn to pay attention. We cannot love without being attentive first.