Why the Apathy in American High Schools?

strikingly similar to one of the classes I visited in my research: Ezlen while the names of liz~ing things poured out of Shiffe's lecture, no one was taking notes. She zt~anted the students to know these names. They did not want to knozt~ them and were not going to learn them. Ap- parentl!y no outside threat-flunking, for example-affrcted the students. Ship did her thing, the students cliattered on, ezlen in the presence of a zlisitor. . . . Their coininon front of uninterest prollably made eiairtina- tioils iiioot. Shife could not flunk thein all, and, if their performance illas uiziforml!y shoddy, she illould have to pass thetn all. Her despera- tion illas as more ~~ni~zotiuated and do- cile, nlhich in turn allozis teacllers to be less interested and dedicated. If students don't care, zilh!/ sllould teacllers? If teachers don't care, i~hy should the students? (Krista, 1987) Yes, it is a classic chicken versus egg problem. We assign teachers the re- sponsibility for setting high standards but we do not give them any of the tools that might be effective for induc- ing student observance of the