Your attention, like mine, is an exhaustible and limited resource. When I present to you a link to an article I think is worth reading, I am asking you to spend, on my recommendation, something you have only so much of.

I understand that you could spend your attention elsewhere. I thank you for trusting it to me, for whatever moments you do.

Your attention is also one of the most precious things you can offer your student. When you listen and watch your student, when you take in all that they say with their body and tone, you are attending to that one thing — to the student — and not attending to other things. You are making a choice. You are giving something of value.

Likewise, when a student offers you their attention, they are offering you something of value. Young students especially may not realize that the moment of attention they give you is not replaceable. But you know this. Teach your students to respect and value their own attention and from this they will begin to learn to how to value yours.

Quality of attention matters. A moment spent wishing to be somewhere else is not the same as one spent bringing yourself fully to bear on the moment. Your focus on what is happening before you is what makes your attention richly valuable. Whether you are speaking or listening, teacher or student, note the quality of your focus.

Children are often told that they have plenty of time to do things, make decisions, to get somewhere. But this is true of all of us, and of none of us. We all have plenty of time: we have this moment in full. And we have no time: there is no promise of a future moment. Every moment you have, you have time to pay attention.

I have said before that deep listening shows us how and what to teach. Excellence in teaching requires we learn to pay better attention. Since we are paying anyway, let us pay with the best quality we can.

Look for moments in which you can create a brilliant focus. Show your students, by example, how to mint the best possible coin.