Advocating for Attention as Curriculum: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents
Communication Tools and Implementation Strategies
This is the third and final piece in my series on attention as curriculum. In Part 1, I argued that attention must become an explicit focus of K-12 education. In Part 2, I outlined a Pedagogy of Cultivated Attention – three questions teachers can use to systematically develop students’ cognitive capacities. This piece provides the advocacy tools needed to make these changes real: communication templates, talking points, and practical strategies for teachers and parents who want to move their schools toward attention-centred education.
If you haven’t read the previous instalments, I encourage you to start there for the fuller argument. But this toolkit can also stand alone for those ready to act.
Several weeks ago, a parent asked me, “How do I convince my son’s school to take their phone ban more seriously?” And just last week, a teacher told me, “My principal doesn’t understand my concern about Chromebooks. How can I explain to him that we rely on them way too much?” These questions arrive all the time, from people who see the cognitive crisis but don’t know how to influence their institutions. This guide is for them.
But before we talk about what to do, here is a reminder of the facts:
Attention spans on screens have declined from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds in the past several years (Dr. Gloria Mark, UC Irvine).
Every additional hour of screen time in early childhood predicts lower scores in math and reading in later grades (JAMA, 15-year longitudinal data).
Social media use among teens correlates with lower reading and memory scores (JAMA, 6,000+ students tracked).
Reading and math performance has dropped across the globe (OECD Pisa scores).
In the U.S., scores have fallen across grades and subjects, beginning before the pandemic and accelerating afterward (NAEP scores).
Phone bans reduce disciplinary problems and improve test scores, especially for lower-achieving students (studies from England and Norway).
In the digital era, for-profit private interests have devised a method of mining human attention, refining it into saleable data, and utilizing neuroscience to ensure their users’ dependency on their products. In schools, where such technologies are widely used, what began as a well-intentioned desire to prepare youth for a changing future has accidentally become a complicity in practices that diminish attention spans, impair cognitive development, and restrict personal agency.
Rather than mirror the marketplace, schools can and should become alternatives to the screen-saturated norm, where our kids’ cognitive potential is protected and nurtured with practices and policies that the evidence supports.
But knowing the problem isn’t enough. Here’s how to act.
What’s in this toolkit:
Success stories from Sweden and Kentucky
Phase-by-phase advocacy strategies for teachers and parents
Ready-to-use talking points for meetings
Email template for communication with administrators
Formal proposal outline
Responses to common objections
Research appendix with key studies
Success Stories
Fortunately, jurisdictions that have prioritized cognitive development over digital convenience offer both practical blueprints and measurable outcomes.
Not long ago, Sweden invested heavily in digital tools for schools, even going so far as to mandate their use in its national preschool curriculum. But by 2022, following poor PISA results, the nation realized “that the students with the highest digital media use for things other than learning, both at school and at home, performed the worst,” so they banned phones from schools and established clear and restrictive guidelines to limit screen time in developmentally appropriate ways. Following improved sentiment among teachers, parents, and students themselves, youth screen time has declined measurably while Sweden’s education ministry has endorsed the reintroduction of “books, pencils, and paper as default tools for learning in the classroom” ($100 million USD investment to reintroduce textbooks).
In Kentucky, where Jefferson County Public Schools have instituted a (effective) bell-to-bell phone ban, a monumental shift in student behaviour is underway. Beyond removing distractions, the county hoped to address its low reading proficiency rates. With buy-in from teachers alongside a well-orchestrated campaign, something remarkable happened: schools across the county have seen library book checkouts double, with some schools seeing ten-fold increases in the first month alone.
The key insight: change is possible, measurable, and replicable. And it begins with informed advocates willing to act.
Advocacy Pathways
For Teachers
The work that leads to change does not occur in isolation. Teachers committed to protecting students’ cognitive development should begin by finding allies. With two or more committed professionals, it becomes possible to transform attention from an idle hope into a product of deliberate pedagogical practice.
But this change won’t happen all at once. I’d recommend a phased approach:
Phase 1: Individual/Department
Begin with an honest audit. Within your own classroom, evaluate the technologies you use by asking whether they preserve or remove students’ opportunities to overcome developmentally appropriate cognitive challenges:
Is this tool necessary to meet this learning objective?
Does this tool remove an opportunity for my students to encounter a “desirable difficulty”?
Can my students overcome this challenge without the use of this tool? If not, can I substitute the tool for a more desirable, developmentally appropriate challenge.
Experiment with bounded assessments in your classroom. Ask: “How will assessment capture process and thinking?”
What Artifacts of Attention does the assessment require students to produce?
When and where will students complete their work?
What tools should they use? What tools should they go without?
Gather evidence systematically. Track student engagement, collect work samples, note changes in classroom dynamics. Share your results informally with colleagues.
Phase 2: Department-Wide
Request time to present at a department meeting. Use the talking points included below alongside evidence from your classroom experiments.
Propose a semester pilot with clear success metrics. Suggest each teacher implement these methods in at least one class, tracking student engagement, work quality, and cognitive development.
Offer to share templates. If you have already adapted your lesson plans to include the cognitive capacities that they develop, and if you adapted your assessments to emphasize process and Artifacts of Attention, share templates with your colleagues so that they can easily use them in their own classes.
Phase 3: School-Wide
Submit a formal proposal to the administration. With departmental support, compile evidence from pilot classrooms, document measurable improvements, and propose school-wide implementation with appropriate timelines and support structures.
Request dedicated time for professional development. Coordinated implementation requires teachers to align practices, share assessment templates, and troubleshoot challenges together.
Partner with willing parents. Education extends beyond the classroom and into the home. It’s crucial that parents remain informed and involved in this transition. Identifying leaders within your parent community will prove invaluable in extending support into your students’ home environments.
For Parents
Parents occupy a different but equally important position in advocating for cognitively-informed education. While teachers work within institutional structures, parents can advocate externally and demonstrate community support for change.
Begin by building a coalition. Individual parent voices can be dismissed; organized parent groups command attention. Approach your child’s school collectively, coordinate your efforts, and approach conversations with the professionalism and good faith that productive partnerships require. Remember that, to be effective, we must build bridges, however slowly. Your child’s school and its educators are not adversaries but partners, even when progress feels frustratingly slow.
Here’s what I’d recommend you do:
Phase 1: Individual Advocacy
Schedule individual meetings with your child’s teachers and/or principal. Use the email template below to introduce your concerns. Think of this as your opportunity to learn more about where they stand. This will allow you to proceed more effectively by knowing where to begin; you can’t nudge things in the right direction if you’re five steps ahead of the school. Use these meetings to request information about the school’s existing tech policies and whether they have been effective.
Phase 2: Organized Advocacy
Present at a PTA meeting. This is an opportunity to inform your fellow parents. Lean on the research, offer success stories, and gather feedback. If other members of the community are interested, put together a list of concerned parents and their contact information.
Draft a formal proposal backed by parent signatures. Use the outline provided below, and present it to school leadership as a community recommendation.
Phase 3: Sustained Involvement
Volunteer as a communications liaison. If your school pilots these changes, offer to distribute updates to the parent community in collaboration with administration, answering questions and building broader support.
Attend board meetings whenever possible. Ensure that this is an agenda item, and request updated information about its progress, surveying teacher and student sentiment as well as academic performance.
Ask how else you can support implementation. Schools may need parent volunteers for specific tasks: facilitating information sessions, addressing concerns, or documenting outcomes.
Communication Templates
Talking Points for Meetings
Use these research-backed points when presenting to administrators, department colleagues, or parent groups:
Research shows clear patterns in the effects that screens have on student attention and learning. Screen-based attention spans have declined from 2.5 minutes to 47 seconds over the past two decades. JAMA studies tracking thousands of students show that each additional hour of daily screen time in childhood correlates with lower reading and math scores. These are trends we can address through thoughtful policy.
Schools that protect attention see immediate results. Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools implemented bell-to-bell phone bans and saw library checkouts increase up to ten-fold in the first month. Sweden invested $100 million USD to reintroduce textbooks after digital-first policies correlated with declining PISA scores. These aren’t isolated cases; they’re replicable outcomes.
This isn’t about rejecting technology; it’s about using it intentionally. We’re not advocating to turn back time. We’re asking: does this tool strengthen or fragment student attention? Does it build cognitive capacity or create dependency? The goal is to create a bounded educational environment that uses technology purposefully so that it serves learning rather than undermining it.
Students need “desirable difficulties” to develop cognitive strength. Education research shows that productive struggle – handwriting instead of typing, solving problems without instant access to answers, reading complex texts without multimedia distractions – actually strengthens retention and understanding. Removing friction also removes the conditions for deep learning.
We can measure success through multiple indicators. Track test scores, but also collect information about: student engagement during class, library checkout rates, quality of written work, teacher observations of focus and resilience, and student reports on the quality of their learning environment.
This change requires minimal financial investment. Unlike most educational reforms, protecting attention doesn’t require expensive new programmes or technologies. This change happens through a change in our pedagogical approach, using many of the means we already have – books, paper, structured class time – more intentionally. The investment is in policy, professional development, and coordinated implementation.
Parents and teachers must work together for this to succeed. School-day phone bans matter, but their effects are squandered if students spend their evenings on screens instead. Similarly, limits at home don’t matter if schools require constant digital engagement. Sustained change requires alignment in both the home and school environment with clear communication and mutual support.
Email Template
The template below is adaptable. Teachers can use (and modify) it to approach their administrators, as can parents.
Subject: Proposal to Explore Attention-Focused Learning Practices
Dear [Insert name],
I’m writing to discuss an approach to student learning that emerging research strongly supports: protecting students’ cognitive development by evaluating how and when we use technology in the classroom.
Recent studies show measurable correlations between screen saturation and declining attention spans, reading comprehension, and academic performance. At the same time, schools that have implemented thoughtful technology boundaries, such as bell-to-bell phone bans and increased use of print materials, are seeing encouraging results, including significant increases in library book checkouts and improved student engagement.
I’d like to propose a modest pilot: [briefly describe specific change – e.g., “implementing bounded assessments in my classroom this semester” or “exploring reduced reliance on learning management systems for assignment tracking”]. This would allow us to gather evidence about its impact on student focus and learning quality.
I’ve compiled research and examples from other schools that have successfully made similar changes. Would you be available to meet and discuss this further? I believe this could benefit our students while requiring minimal additional resources.
Thank you for considering this proposal.
[Insert your name]
Formal Proposal Outline
Problem Statement:
Begin by summarizing the problem you hope to address. Consider something like:
“Recent research documents measurable correlations between increased screen time and declining academic performance, reduced sustained attention, and decreased engagement with long-form reading. Our current technology practices may inadvertently undermine the cognitive capacities we’re trying to develop.”
Research:
“The following research supports the pilot I am proposing: [Select 2-3 studies from the appendix below that directly relate to your proposed changes. For each, include: the finding, the sample size/duration, and its relevance to your specific pilot.]”
Proposed Pilot:
Select one focused intervention that you can implement and measure within a single semester. For example:
Implementing bounded assessments that require handwritten drafts, in-class work periods, and process artifacts alongside final products.
Reducing reliance on learning management systems by having students maintain physical agenda books and assignment trackers.
Designing lessons around specific cognitive capacities such as sustained attention, working memory, or metacognitive awareness.
Establishing technology-free work blocks during which students engage with primary sources, draft by hand, or solve problems without digital aids.
Success Metrics:
Establish 3-5 concrete, measurable indicators you will track throughout the pilot:
Quantitative measures:
Academic performance (test scores, assignment grades, reading assessments)
Engagement data (library checkouts, assignment completion rates, time on task)
Behavioural observations (participation frequency, focus duration, revision attempts)
Qualitative measures:
Student surveys or reflections on their learning experience
Teacher observations of classroom dynamics and student work quality
Work samples showing process artifacts (drafts, annotations, revisions)
Specify when and how you will collect this data, and who will analyze the results.
Timeline:
Include a timeline. For example:
Week 1-2: [Implementation begins]
Week 4: [First checkpoint - informal data review]
Week 8: [Midpoint assessment - adjust if needed]
Week 12-14: [Final data collection]
Week 15: [Present findings to department/administration]
Addressing Resistance
You may face some pushback when advocating for these changes. Below are common objections and concise responses:
“Students need tech skills for jobs.”
The most valuable future skills are cognitive, not platform-specific: critical thinking, sustained focus, and clear communication matter more than familiarity with today’s apps, which quickly become obsolete. We’re not removing technology; we’re ensuring students develop the cognitive capacity to use it effectively rather than becoming dependent on it.
“Parents expect online assignment tracking.”
When students manage their own agendas, parents will see tangible improvements in their child’s organization, time management, and personal responsibility – skills that matter far beyond school. We can maintain essential communication about major assignments while building the executive function skills that constant digital monitoring prevents from developing.
“We already bought the devices/subscriptions.”
Sunk costs shouldn’t drive pedagogical decisions. We’re not proposing to discard devices but to use them intentionally for specific tasks rather than as defaults for all learning, which actually maximizes our investment by ensuring technology supports rather than substitutes for cognitive development.
“This isn’t feasible in under-resourced schools.”
Protecting attention requires fewer resources, not more: books, paper, and structured time cost less than device programmes and platform subscriptions. Under-resourced schools often have the most to gain from approaches emphasizing foundational cognitive skills over expensive technological infrastructure.
“What about IEP accommodations?”
Assistive technology for students with documented needs remains essential and fully supported within this approach. Research shows that thoughtful technology boundaries benefit all students while accommodating individual needs, creating learning environments where necessary supports and cognitive development work together.
Research Appendix
Key Studies Supporting Attention-Focused Education:
Attention & Cognition
Screen-based attention spans have declined from 2.5 minutes (2004) to 47 seconds (recent years) – Dr. Gloria Mark, UC Irvine, 2023
Each additional hour of screen time in early childhood correlates with lower math and reading scores in later grades – JAMA study, 15-year longitudinal research, 2025
Social media use during adolescence correlates with lower reading and memory test scores – JAMA study tracking 6,000+ students, 2025
Brief digital interruptions significantly impair working memory and task performance – Journal of Cognitive Science, 2019
The mere presence of smartphones in classrooms correlates with lower academic performance and diminished focus – Multiple studies, 2021-2023
Learning & Retention
Reading on paper leads to better comprehension than reading on screens – International Journal of Educational Research, University of Stavanger, 2013
Handwriting activates widespread brain connectivity that typing does not – Frontiers in Psychology, 2023
“Desirable difficulties” in learning improve long-term retention – Bjork & Bjork, educational psychology research, 1994
Students who take notes by hand demonstrate better conceptual understanding than those who type – Psychological Science, 2014
Mental Health & Development
Social media use contributes to rising anxiety rates among adolescents – Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 2024
Heavy social media users develop brains hypersensitive to external validation – JAMA Pediatrics, 2022
Academic Performance Trends
NAEP scores have fallen across grades and subjects, beginning before COVID-19 and accelerating afterward – U.S. Department of Education
PISA 2022 results showed unprecedented drops in reading and math globally – OECD
40% of U.S. high school seniors had not read a book for pleasure in the past year (2024), up from 11.5% (1976) – The Atlantic, 2024
Policy Interventions That Work
Phone bans improve test scores, especially for lower-achieving students, and reduce disciplinary problems – Studies from England and Norway
Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) saw library checkouts increase up to ten-fold in first month of phone ban – Multiple school data, 2024
Sweden reinvested over $100 million USD in textbooks, after digital-first policies correlated with declining PISA performance – Swedish Ministry of Education, 2023
If these resources prove valuable, please share them with teachers, parents, and administrators in your community. The Walled Garden grows through conversation, and change accelerates when advocates can speak with clarity and confidence.
I’d love to hear how these strategies work in practice. If you use these tools, whether in a department meeting, a conversation with your principal, or a PTA presentation, please share your experience. Email me by replying to this post in your inbox or send a private message through Substack. Your feedback helps refine these resources and encourages others considering similar advocacy.
The work of protecting students’ cognitive development happens one classroom, one school, one community at a time. Thank you for being part of it.
This is great. Thank you. I, as a parent advocating for parents to speak up around EdTech, created this resource for thinking together and changing course. :
Why Can't We Say No? https://whycantwesayno.com
Here's to hoping that this conversation spreads far and wide!