Check out this video. It’s just over a minute in duration, so it won’t take long.
If you don’t want to watch, here’s a quick explanation. The video shows a small group of people moving in a circle, passing a couple basketballs around. Viewers are instructed to count how many passes are made.
Accurately counting the number of passes is, of course, not the point of the video. At one point, a person in a gorilla suit walks into the circle, beats his chest a few times, hangs out for a moment, then leaves.
Here’s the remarkable thing to note: in studies conducted by psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, somewhere between one-third to one-half of viewers never even notice the gorilla. They’re too busy following directions, focusing on getting the right answer to the question.
* * *
And so it is with kids in school.
Maybe they have a passion for talking about music. They might be an amazing radio DJ . . . but they have a chemistry test in a couple days. No time to intern at the local radio station, gotta to study up.
Maybe they’re not really interested in going to college, but that’s what everyone has told them is the smart move. Well, they can start that web design business someday, maybe after they get a degree. No time for entrepreneurial pursuits now, gotta study for the SAT.
Kids are born into a 360 degree world in which anything and everything is possible. With each passing year, that window to the world shrinks. By the time they get to high school, kids are buried by required classes, mandatory homework, and the social pressure to conform to a narrow definition of success. That 360 degree worldview has been replaced with tunnel vision: gotta get to my next class . . . gotta ace the next exam . . . gotta get my college application looking shiny.
And while they’re busy following directions and focusing on getting the right answers, they’re ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room: What is it that I love to do? What am I passionate about?
What makes my heart sing?
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