[Evans, Marv]

The thing is this. In the Army/Marines, etc. there is a saying, "You can't march any faster than your slowest soldier." In the classroom, you can't go by that philosophy. Obviously if you gear your instruction to your lowest achieving student(s), all the others suffer as a result. You really have to keep the pace and activities such as to keep as many in class interested, engaged, focused, and on task as possible. However, the system expects you to also devote extra effort and time to the low achievers. This is fine if you are provided time and resources for that. But all they usually say is that you have to devote say 1/2 hr. of special instruction to each low achiever or maybe you can do it as a group, which doesn't normally meet the needs of all of them. My wife has to do this at the elementary level. You can see what this does to the rest of the class at that time. They have to do a reading activity or some other similar activity. This isn't unique. This is what is demanded up the ladder. It lets the school system say they are doing something to meet the needs of the low achievers. Those unmotivated are part of that group. So what it ends up being is that you have to devote time away from the rest of the class to try to give special attention to some students who don't give a damn anyway.