There are those of us who have trained ourselves to pay attention. We do not need these sorts of books. We have tried to describe the problem and tell how one may train oneself to attention, but nobody listens.

As one commenter said, it is not the internet particularly. It never has been. There have always been fragmented minds (although the commenter seems to mistake ADD for the usual run of life. I was born as poor as any, have had to work as hard as any, and I loved to read from a very early age, so it is not just the privilege of the rich. Who actually, on the whole, do not read as much as the rest of us.

Of course everyone's attention is scattered most of the time. We're talking about the ability to focus for an hour or two or three a day, not all the time.

Have you ever sat for an hour doing nothing? I mean, nothing? Extremely unlikely. It is anxiety that hustles people into scattered activities. The terror of blankness.

To Sunny Jim re the lack of teachers, especially math teachers: Don't hold your breath. I'm 65, have 3 degrees (math, English, and MFA in writing), I was a tenured full professor, and I was a damn good teacher. I didn't mock my students, put them down, tyrannize them, or any other such thing. I inspired quite a few, as they will tell you.

I knew the stuff and I was good. And now I cannot get hired. They hire the young. One cannot exactly blame them, but I could teach (and have) either calculus or formal poetry or how to write a novel. I know the stuff, and I have experience, and I am good, and I cannot get hired.

The educational system is busted. Maybe it is like the banks. They were busted a long time before the actual crash, but nobody would admit it.

I would like to have seen it mentioned that one cannot learn without the ability to concentrate. A few rudimentary things, perhaps, like not grabbing the handle of a hot skillet. But differential equations, computer programming, poetry, painting, the building of a good car--these things require concentration.

Was glad to see Skenazy mention Japan. Have been to Japan twice for extended visits, once to Nagaoka, once to Yamagata. Japan has its problems, but one of the most beautiful sights I saw was schoolchildren from five on up walking all the way across town unattended in their uniforms. No one would dream of harming a child. It wasn't something they thought about.

Dear KayWWW: I wasn't going to write any more letters to this column (why give hits to a man who is either a smug liar or a moron?), but your response stirred something in me.

It WAS once fashionable for the politically correct (NOT liberals) to sneer at science as "cold" and inhuman. The attitude resulted, in my opinion, from a misguided conception that reason and imagination are opposites, not complements.

I am not a woman, but I am a poet--a poet with degrees in math as well as English and writing--and I well remember the scorn that was heaped on me in the late sixties for loving science and reason and even daring to write poems about them.

I am still a liberal. I am still a poet. I still love mathematics, reason, and science, and of course the Wingnut here is full of bullshit. Not writing to him, really. Waste of time. Just wanted to say that others have had your sort of experience, and thanks for hanging in there.

Fine article, Dr. Burton. One of the most disastrous misconceptions in our culture is that the realm of reason and the realm of feelings, imagination, creativity, are opposites, that they interfere with rather than support each other. This misconception is extremely difficult to root out, perhaps because it seems so simple and offers many people an excuse--either not to think (the Republicans seem to be for emotion and not reason in almost all other cases not involving SCOTUS appointees), or not to feel. No matter how many times anyone presents evidence against the misconception, people revert to it. Witness Mr. Samuel Smith, in this very letters column, arguing with you not by presenting evidence but by reiterating the same old terrible misconception.

Personally, I feel that people without empathy are only technically human. And I find it very difficult to generate any respect at all for someone who ignores evidence and refuses to use his or her brain. Why would a judge who lacks empathy be more likely to side with the bad guys than the good guys? MY empathy causes me to feel empathy even more strongly for those who suffer an injustice.

Reason helps those who do possess empathy decide on the most useful ways to implement the empathy.

Anyway, thanks. There is no remedy but to keep pointing out, as many times as we have to, how idiotic the idea is that reason and empathy are opposed to each other.

Once more, goddammit. SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT AN ENTITLEMENT. I WORKED for that money. THAT IS MY MONEY. Get your greedy grubby little hands off of it, jerkwads. Or if you want to mess around with it, give me my money back. NOW. I won't even charge the government interest for all that cash it took out of my paychecks.

My son-in-law and I may be two of the only Americans ever to see "Zebraman" (Zaybra Mon, as they pronounce it) on purpose. I was impressed, when I could quit laughing. "Striping evil!"