Pay Attention

Here in AP English, we spend a lot of time with words. We read, we write, we analyze, we synthesize, and occasionally we take controversial and infuriating multiple choice exams. In the past, I’ve always associated this literacy with intelligence, an assumption that seemed to be backed up by modern culture. After all, the SAT doesn’t measure our creativity, our knowledge of history, our interpersonal etiquette, our ability to play music. The SAT measures our ability to read, write, and do math things. Now, most of us have been reading and writing for a long time; some of us took longer than others, and we still haven’t mastered the math things, but we’re all fairly well acquainted with the English language. For a while, I thought this made us smart.

And then, a few weeks ago, I pulled on a door that was clearly labeled “PUSH”.

As much as I hate to admit it, high SAT scores do not mean that we’re smart. Testing well does not make us wise. And even a 5 on the AP English exam will not open a closed door that is being pulled in the wrong direction. Reading and writing are important, rewarding skills… but sometimes we forget this skill set does not just apply to research papers and Classic Lit. Reading and writing also means paying attention, and being active participants in our own lives.

As humans, we all fall victim to a phenomenon called “perceptual blindness”. The world is so full of stimuli that we cannot possibly process everything we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste; instead, our brains subconsciously prioritize. When we see a stop sign, we don’t take time to notice that the sign is a red hexagon with a white outline and white text reading “STOP” mounted on a dark gray pole that is firmly rooted in the ground with a little bit of green graffiti on the side that someone tried to cover over and there’s actually a little bit of dirt on the bottom, too…because we don’t need to. What we need to do is STOP, so we pay just enough attention to realize that it is, in fact, a stop sign, and then we put our foot on the brake and move on. A study conducted on this matter proved that when road signs were slightly altered, the changes went unnoticed. The participants in the study stopped at “STOOP” signs, and watched out for “SLOW CHILDERN”. They slowed down at the “NOOSE CROSSING”, and they even yielded when instructed to “WELD”.

So what does this all mean? It means that knowing how to read and write is not enough, and having a large vocabulary will not bring us success. We need to have judgement, and curiosity. We need to put down our phones when we’re driving because the stimulus we aren’t expecting might not be a “STOOP” sign, it might be a small child chasing a ball across the street, or a construction worker holding a stop sign where there’s never been cause to stop, before. We need to pay attention because it will open doors to opportunities that are off-limits for those who are glued to their iPhones. Read books, but don’t forget to also read food labels and road maps and refrigerator magnets. Write papers, but don’t forget to write personal notes and grocery lists and minutes from your last office meeting. Pay attention, because the people who write your obituary will be the people who read your love letters, and you will be remembered for the choices you made, not the things you didn’t notice.

Class of 2013, as we leave this institution, we leave knowing how to read and write. Not everything in life comes with simple instructions; we will have to decide when to push the envelope, and when to pull heartstrings. But if we pay attention to what’s going on in the world around us, we’ll find that some of life’s challenges are just as simple as they seem. Good luck.