Simone Weil Discipline

Discipline in Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies by Simone Weil “Students must therefore work without any wish…to win school successes…applying themselves equally to all their tasks, with the idea that each one will help to form in them the habit of that attention which is the substance of prayer” (Weil 59). For the modern student, education is a rigorous ritual of deadlines, standardized tests, and overscheduling all to prove their worth to an admissions committee or future employer. Success requires strict focus and attention to detail; a behavior Simone Weil denounces and aims to redirect in Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies. Weil believes that a religiously conscious student should use their studies not to strengthen
Any approach to work deemed “good” by the classroom should be applied just as successfully in all facets of life, personal or otherwise. Weil would respond that devout students’ “deep purpose should aim solely at increasing the power of attention with a view to prayer” (59), and they should “take great pains to examine…attentively…each school task in which [they] have failed… [to] acquire the virtue of humility” (59-60). If the instrument of work is an accomplishment in the classroom, then failure will never be present. Weil argues that a student’s deliberate focus on their errors will lead them to a virtuous life, one that does not align with an impartially successful lifestyle. The academic student becomes an antihero to the religious student, striving for success yet growing morally bankrupt throughout each successive act of their performance. Conversely, the religious student will appear to fall short of their intelligent counterpart while bolstering their intimate connection with God. They become the truly dedicated actor, devoting themselves to their performance through sustained, intense attention to every task they are given. And in this lifelong concentration, students who love God will always have a religiously fulfilled