Schools spend years teaching algebra, chemistry and history to students. Yet too many finish high school without knowing how memory, attention and stress impact their learning. They assume that poor grades mean “they aren’t smart enough.”
The truth is, few students are taught evidence-backed strategies for studying, getting a good night’s sleep and managing stress before high-pressure exams.
If schools and teachers want students to thrive, they must teach them how to learn early on.
Case in point: My high school classmate pulled an all-nighter before an Advanced Placement U.S. History exam at Lithonia High School in metropolitan Atlanta, cramming Heimler’s History videos. During the test, he forgot much of the content he had studied. His conclusion was clear: “Maybe I should’ve studied harder.”
I disagreed. The issue wasn’t his effort. Nor his intelligence. It was that he had never been taught how learning worked.
Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.
This is a significant issue for students in under-resourced communities, where access to guidance on how stress, sleep and attention affect learning is often limited.
Many students are left to figure out effective strategies on their own. I saw this firsthand at my school. It’s why I started the Cognition Club in ninth grade with the support of my counselor. As the club developed, we discussed foods that support concentration and strategies for managing stress while studying for the state-required Georgia Milestones Assessment — topics rarely addressed in class.
My interest in brain health came from home. My sister developed epilepsy when she was 9, and her grades slipped over time as it affected her memory, concentration and ability to attend school.
Witnessing how she often blamed herself for not doing as well as she had before, I gathered and gave her wellness and study strategies — such as good sleep hygiene, focused study intervals and techniques to reduce fatigue — drawing inspiration from Jim Kwik and Andrew Huberman.
These approaches helped her challenge the belief that her academic ability was fixed, and motivated her to pursue studies in business and law. While supporting her successful journey, I realized how simple methods can help students who doubt their ability to learn.
Eventually, our Cognition Club conversations shifted from how many hours we studied to how we studied. I noticed that students who initially treated the club as a study hall began to report less anxiety during tests.
Schools constantly assess learning through quizzes, assignments and standardized exams. Understanding how attention, stress and study habits affect learning can help students build stronger study routines, improve self-regulation and approach school and career paths with greater confidence. And for students navigating financial stress, family responsibilities or limited academic support, understanding how learning works can be especially valuable.
Related: Helping kids learn how their brains work
Entering higher education, I became increasingly aware that many students were not being introduced early enough to the science of learning. This motivated me to create NeuroPioneers Pathway in 2023 — an independent, student-led initiative focused on brain health education and mentorship for underserved middle and high school students.
Through curriculum development and educational outreach, I sought to introduce students to the relationship between everyday habits and learning, and to strategies to improve memory, attention and sleep. The experience reinforced my belief that young people should have opportunities to understand how their brains work before academic challenges begin to shape their confidence and limit their aspirations.
Many students assume that academic success is driven solely by hard work or innate ability. In our six-week curriculum in North Carolina, they gain exposure to brain health and protective habits through interactive workshops, hands-on learning and college student mentorship. They leave with a better understanding of how their habits affect their learning.
Teaching how attention and stress shape memory and learning is just as important as teaching academic content.
All students deserve to have opportunities to discover how their brains learn best, but schools don’t need to add another graduation requirement to make that happen. They can start by integrating basic learning-science concepts into existing health, science and advisory courses. A psychology teacher can host office hours or after-school meetings to help students study smarter, not harder. Social workers and guidance counselors can help students manage stressors for better focus on test day. School leaders can hold schoolwide assemblies to help students build better learning habits for academic success.
I’m not saying that teaching students about attention, stress, memory and effective study habits will solve every educational challenge. But it can help students better understand factors influencing their academic performance and help them learn more effectively.
Students shouldn’t have to discover successful habits through trial and error. If we want students to succeed, we’ve got to teach them not only what to learn, but also how learning works.
Victoria Ayodele is an undergraduate student studying neurological development and nutrition. Her interests include neuroscience education, brain health literacy and educational equity.
This opinion piece about neuroscience education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org
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