Kind of a downer....

What do you do with a student who just doesn't care? What do you do when you've tried many different approaches to get her interested in some aspect of your subject and she still just doesn't care? The student doesn't want to be in school (or your class, at least) and the only reason she is there is because her parents (or the compulsory schooling law) are forcing the student to be there. What do you do when you've talked with the student and asked her what you can do to help her learn better, or what opportunities she would be excited about pursuing that pertain to your subject, and she is still unresponsive? How do you communicate to this student that you care about her and want her to be successful, within the confines of school policy (especially when teacher-student relationships outside of school may appear to be crossing boundaries - ie. It would not necessarily be appropriate for you to take this student out for lunch over the weekend to get to know her better or to show that you care)? What do you do when this student is failing your class because she is choosing to do so, despite the efforts you have made to reach out to her?

Are we sometimes arrogant (despite our best intetions) in thinking that we, as dedicated educators, have the power to motivate those who choose not to be motivated (or whose life experiences have inhibited intrinsic motivation)? Do we really have any power to motivate at all? (This gets into issues of determinism vs. free will, and because I have another Paideia paper to write, I will stop here). Do we simply "do the best we can" and hope for miracles? Powerlessness doesn't feel too good for anyone...