We've talked about the expectation among DISD students that everything has to be fun. I had a young man come in and tell me he needs to start trying harder and working more in my class. He's said this before and he usually does for a few days and then gives up. He's smart. He gets the material. I've given him easy work and i've given him challenging work. I've let him learn at his own pace and I've let him use alternative methods to learn the same material. Has anything created lasting engagement? No. He genuinely likes history but the reason why he isn't excelling? "I get bored sometimes..." True. So does everyone. There's nothing wrong with that. Letting that turn into a semester worth of nothing isn't an acceptable response based on boredom. He finds something he likes in every unit but has the attention span of about 30 seconds. Where has this expectation come from? Let's break it.
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