Note: (a) This is a long post. It’s possible that your mail reader may truncate it. If so, you can read the full post on the Web site of Special Education Today. (b) I just can’t edit it another time, so please help by sending notes about typos or other errors—JohnL
It’s hard to turn around these days without having “attention” brought to one’s attention (teehee). Attention seems to be scattered everywhere!
On the US television show, Today, Niro Feliciano broadcast “A 30-Day Plan to Build Back Your Attention Span, From a Psychotherapist.”
Psyschology Today posted an article entitled “Attention: Distraction” on 17 July 2026.
In the Washington Post for 24 April 2026, Ariel Gilreath published “The tricks teachers are trying to fix students’ shortening attention spans: In addition to limiting screen time, some schools are building in ‘brain breaks,’ shorter lessons and practicing meditation.
Over on his often-excellent Substack, the eminent (and sometimes, self-described “grumpy old man” 🙂) psychologist Paul Kirschner discussed attention 26 April 2026 in a post entitled “It’s Not Just a Notification: It’s a hijack of attention!”
Of course, Greg Ashman discussed attention often in his posts on Filling the Pail (see, e.g., “Do not think of a white bear: And the inside out model of the mind”1 ), a source I admire and to which I’ve referred SET subscribers often.
And another psychologist, the much-admired Carl Hendrick, had an entire post extolling the importance of attention as the “the thing” to which education should (ahem) attend (…wait for it): Waiting, Not Seeking: Reading As Resistance: Reclaiming Attention in a World Designed Against Itwhat?
Over on his ‘stack, Knowledge for Teachers (and elsewhere), Brendan Lee discussed “The Architecture of Attention.”
Andrew Cantarutti posted about “Architects of Attention: A Conversation with The Heights School: On Attention, AI, and the Conditions for Learning” on his ‘stack, The Walled Garden Education.
Led by D. Graham Burnett and Peter Schmidt, the School of Attention publishes “The Empty Cup,” a smorgasbord of writing about “advancing attention activism through community programs in the study and practice of human attention,” which mostly seem to come from an arts perspective (see an editorial, “Powerful Forces Are Fracking Our Attention. We Can Fight Back,” in the New York Times from 24 November 2023).
David Didau, the savvy and widely read education advocate behind The Learning Spy, posted “The economics of attention: Why we should budget attention before we spend it” on 9 August 2026.
And, if one searches electronic data bases about research regarding attention + learning + education, one can find 1000s and 1000s of academic articles; see, for example,
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=attention+learning+education
As those examples show, the topic of attention is—if not “everywhere”—common in contemporary discussions. If one found herself cheering when reading these bullets, well she must be well on the way to thinking that attention is it! Attention is right at the top of the list of important topics. Attention might be the long-sought goblet or even The Goddess!
But, just a second! What the H-E-double toothpick does “attention” mean? In this post, Dear Readers, you’ll find an examination of the meanings of “attention.” And that examination amounts to a caution about indiscriminate, ill-founded use of the term and the construct.
Uses of “attention”
Attention is a construct with many meanings. The following quotes illustrate a few of these.
