This inability to stay focused I would imagine is a serious concern to teachers and parents; there are drugs (Such as riddilin) that are becoming a more and more common solution for their rambunctious kid's attention problem. It must be hard teaching to restless students that have little interest in school or who have a hard time keeping their mind on their studies. In college staying focused is vital element to academic success, so why don't students try to develop better concentration skills? I believe a huge factor in this shortening of America's focusing skills have stems from the enormous amount of "push button" entertainment. By "push button", I mean entertainment at the fingertips, with just a flip of a switch someone can play a realistic games, watch any type of entertainment on TV, or communicate with people and places around the world on the Internet. All of these things help bring focused thought to its knees and puts the instructors back against the wall. How is an instructor to compete with these juggernauts of the their students lives. Sacks mentions this dilemma in his book, and says his students and fellow teachers suggest that he be more entertaining, but Sacks takes this poorly saying "I"m not an entertainer I"m a teacher".
Although a good number of students have difficulties with the "Written word", I do not believe that the responsibility lies completely with the student. Let's examine the school system that these students are coming from. In Sacks's book he describes how students were passed from one grade to another weather they meet the requirements necessary for the succession to the next grade or not. Some students have a level of maturation that allows them to be responsible for their own learning but can you expect children and teenagers to be accountable for their own education. Some students may listen to what their teachers say about what it takes to write a good paper, but when they go home they just hit spell and grammar check in the computer.
