The Noise All Around Us
It doesn’t take much more than a pause to realize how much noise is all around us.
After recently singing the Christmas carol “Silent Night,” I got to reflecting on this phrase: “The silence is deafening.” One of the things that we have been thinking about a lot as a leadership team at Hamilton District Christian High is the concept of ‘quiet.’ What is good quiet? Why do we need it? If you stop and just listen, right where you are, what do you hear? It doesn’t take much more than a pause to realize how much noise is all around us.
A couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Bloemendal and Mr. Todd went to a conference on Learning and the Brain, and one of the speakers talked about how distractions are affecting brain development. One particular comment was this:
“Multi-tasking is to the brain as smoking is to the lungs.”
Multi-tasking, in this statement, is defined as the inability to go deep into any one activity because of being attentive to too many other things.
When I heard this, I thought about the device in my hand.
My mobile device is very, very powerful and it is a major tool in my multi-tasking–or should I say, distraction. I have noticed how tempting it is to respond to my phone whenever it dings, bings, buzzes or blinks. When I hear it while I am working, my attention is redirected, even for just a split second, and then I have to restart my train of thought. My mobile device a multi-tasking tool, a distraction, a source of a lot of the noise in my life. And I am certain the same is true for many of you.
My mobile device is very, very powerful and it is a major tool in my multi-tasking–or should I say, distraction. I have noticed how tempting it is to respond to my phone whenever it dings, bings, buzzes or blinks. When I hear it while I am working, my attention is redirected, even for just a split second, and then I have to restart my train of thought. My mobile device a multi-tasking tool, a distraction, a source of a lot of the noise in my life. And I am certain the same is true for many of you.
Today, I was talking to a couple of grade 12 students. As we discussed a number of things, the topic of mobile devices came up. One student shared that since he has deleted nearly every social media app on his phone, his grades have gone up, he has more energy, he feels better about himself — and he has never felt like he was missing out on something with his friends. He examined his habits and refocused them. As this student was sharing, I was impressed by two things: one, this was validating the message that Mrs. Bloemendal brought back from the conference; and two, a grade 12 student is leading me to consider eliminating some of the distracting phone-based habits in my life.
And as we head towards our Christmas break, I look forward to choosing things not associated with my mobile device. Some of my choices will be a good book, a quiet afternoon playing a board game with the kids, or just playing in the snow. Essentially our distractions are a choice: family or mobile device, going for a walk or mobile device, face-to-face conversation or mobile device. Christmas is a time for all of us to be both distracted and focused, it’s both noisy and quiet. How are you going to block out the noise and get deafened by the “Silent Night” this Christmas season?
Nathan Siebenga
Principal