Students intently watch 30-day 24/7 livestreams of Kai Cenat, but tune out after ten minutes into a lecture.
Before the finger points to students’ attention spans, the real culprit of this disconnect all comes down to respect. Frankly, the lack of respect for students.
When Kevin Ostrowski and Sam Wasylenko graduated college this past May, they started reflecting on what actually worked during their years as students (and what made them want to hide under their desk until class ended).
As content creators for our Subject team, they’ve interviewed dozens of students who transformed from academic failures to graduation successes. Their insight cuts through decades of educational assumptions like a hot knife through administrative bureaucracy.
“I can sit and watch a four-hour YouTube video or a podcast,” Kevin recalls.
“It’s not an attention span problem, it’s an engagement problem.”
That single observation should make every district administrator question everything they think they know about student engagement.
Why Quiet Classrooms Are Failing
Student attention spans have measurably changed over the past decade—but new curriculum design and adoption moves at the speed of bureaucratic molasses.
While students adapt to consuming information at lightning speed, educational content creators are still building materials like it’s 2009. Then students get left behind, not because they can’t focus, but because nobody’s meeting them where they actually are.
So, the real tragedy is that educators keep designing content as if students can’t handle complexity, then wonder why they’re bored senseless.
Sam experienced this firsthand during his online classes. “People are still constructing these classes as if you need to stretch a really basic concept out really long,” he says. “It feels like they’re bored now because they aren’t being engaged and met at the level that they’re at.”
That’s the blindspot costing schools their students’ attention. The problem isn’t short attention spans, but an inability to engage students at their levels. Students spend their days consuming content created by people who actually understand their audience.
Kevin cuts into the uncomfortable truth:
“I think teachers and educators tell themselves that [students have short-attention spans], so they don’t have to be more entertaining and try harder.”
That stings because it’s accurate. Blaming student deficiency is easier than admitting your content doesn’t measure up.
The Axis of Attention
Going straight from their student experience into social content creation gave Kevin and Sam a unique vantage point.
Working with us while interviewing students who don’t feel engaged, they realized they completely resonated with that lack of respect for students’ actual interests and capabilities. Kids can tell the difference between content made for them versus content made to check administrative boxes.
Introducing…the Axis of Attention, a diagnostic tool that shows you which category your materials fall into, based on what Kevin and Sam learned from students who’ve seen both sides of educational failure and success. The solution requires understanding where your educational content actually sits on two critical dimensions: Content Quality and Student Respect.
Most EdTech companies operate in complete denial about both.
Here’s how the Axis of Attention breaks down:
- Low Quality + Low Respect = Student Disengagement
This is where most traditional EdTech and outdated curriculum lives. Pure content delivery, no flair. Sam described it perfectly: “You can tell they didn’t really care. They were just trying to sell a contract.”
- Low Quality + High Respect = Ineffective Compliance
Well-meaning educators may treat students kindly but still deliver boring content. Students participate out of politeness but aren’t actually engaged. It’s a participation trophy—nice gesture, zero impact.
- High Quality + Low Respect = Just Entertainment
Flashy, dumbed-down content that assumes students can’t handle complexity. All sizzle, no substance. Students might watch, but they’re not learning anything transferable.
- High Quality + High Respect = True Learning
This is where magic happens. Students recognize when content is made for them, not at them. Sam’s reaction to well-designed platforms: “I can tell that this platform was made for us. It’s not clunky, it’s not boring, it’s very engaging, it’s exciting.”
The students that spoke to Kevin and Sam made it clear that quality and respect are interconnected, not separate considerations. High-quality content communicates respect. Cheap-looking materials signal that educators don’t think students are worth the investment.
Moving from any other quadrant into “True Learning” requires a mindset shift. “Respect the student,” Sam adds. “They’re not stupid.”
How to Use the Axis of Attention
- STEP 1: Start by auditing your current materials through student eyes. “If you wouldn’t personally sit through that lecture and take notes and learn something from it at that age,” Kevin adds, “you probably shouldn’t be talking about it.”
- STEP 2: Next, connect learning to student goals. Sam discovered this during his marketing agency work in college. “Once I connected those dots… I was able to draw a line directly from my class, to my notes, to my business,” he explains. “I actually really look forward to going to class again.”
- STEP 3: Finally, use technology to amplify human connection, not replace it. “There’s no world where we don’t need teachers,” Sam says. “[EdTech products] make their life easier, because they can spend more time just being with the students.”
The Platform Wars Come for Classrooms
The trajectory is obvious once you see it. Students already expect educational content to meet entertainment standards. AI has made truly personalized learning affordable for the first time in educational history. Every district administrator needs to decide: will you meet students where they are, or keep wondering why they’re not showing up?
Kevin and Sam envision a future where educational content creators become household names. “It really becomes a Netflix of education, where you could go tune on to your favorite education show, and that counts as going to school.”
Nobody’s suggesting teachers need to become Hollywood executive producers overnight (though honestly, if Steven Spielberg wants to direct your AP Chemistry unit, we’re not stopping him). Students have simply outgrown educational systems that haven’t changed since the Carter administration. They can handle complex ideas when those ideas are presented with care. They’ll focus for hours when content respects their intelligence.
At Subject, we’re already proving this works by winning students back from academic failure. Meanwhile, traditional EdTech companies keep insisting the problem is student attention spans while their users quietly migrate to platforms that actually understand them.
Schools, it’s your move now. Students are waiting—but not for long.