Simone Weil on Education and Attention

I’ve written a number of times in this space about the “attention economy” (for example, here, here, and here). When people consume content on a screen, we are in effect selling our attention. Decisions about purchasing many goods and services are shaped by what gets our attention. It may look as if employers are paying workers for their time, but in many jobs, they are paying workers in substantial part for the level of attention they bring to the job. In reading the philosopher Simone Weil, and her 1951 essay “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God” (available here and here, for example) I found myself thinking about the nature of “attention.” As the title implies, Weil is focused on how attention in the sense of studying in school can build attention for a deeper form of prayer. My own focus here is on her idea that “attention” can come in different forms. Weil writes about attention and studying in school: In order really to pay attention, it…