One of the most common frustrations I hear teachers express is, “I have taught them this already.” This observation is valid and deeply felt, but it requires a shift in perspective. Cognitive psychology and brain-based learning research offer a clear explanation: students filter out far more than they filter in , and teaching does not automatically lead to learning. The opening chapters of Learning That Sticks (Goodwin, 2020) outline the scale of this filtering problem. Our sensory systems relay 11 million bits of information per second , yet the brain can consciously process only around 120 bits per second . This means that “our brains simply cannot squeeze 180 bits of information into a 120-bit mental pipe (Levitin, 2015).” Much of what is said in a classroom, therefore, never makes it past the sensory register. In a world where students receive “the equivalent of 174 newspapers of information every day,” the brain is constantly working to “separate the trivial from the importa...