Mary Esterheld writes:

>I think it would be more to the point to try to understand why young
>people have such short attention spans and try to correct that problem.

and Dave asks:

>[Is there any evidence at all to suggest that young people
>have shorter attention spans now than they once did?

Its the culture, ladies and gentlemen, it is a quick quick succession
of images, ideas, etc, etc.  Blogs are quick, e-mail is quick, few write
extended thoughtful e-mails or blogs.  A recent article on THE TWENTY
FIRST CENTURY LEARNER features a young man or woman with earphones on,
and with several chat rooms open on his computer.  Almost incidentally
his calculus book is open somewhere nearby because HE IS DOING HIS
HOMEWORK!!!  So you expect this person to switch gears to listen to a
Bruckner adagio? A few no doubt will do so with pleasure- most will not.

Bernard Chasan