I have taught kids ranging from 6 years old to 2nd year University undergrads. The really young kids were in the setting of a coding bootcamp while the 2nd year undergrads were in a Tutorial. I&#x27;m just prefacing my comment by saying that I&#x27;ve experienced a large range of ages and abilities.<p>I always see this excuse as a failure of the teacher, rather than the students. I believe students <i>want</i> to learn, and the non-motivation is usually a result of something that isn&#x27;t so hard that the teacher can&#x27;t get around it. I used to feel that way before and only gear my lessons towards the motivated ones (why should I waste my time on kids who dont want to learn?), but I realized that it was I who was not motivated enough to get through to those kids. The movie &quot;Stand and Deliver&quot; portrays what I&#x27;m trying to say in a really fun and useful way.<p>I think teachers need to be held to a higher standard and blaming their lack of success on students should be the last resort, after everything has been tried. Sure you&#x27;ll get some really pathological cases where the student is absolutely unreachable, but I think that&#x27;s so rare that it&#x27;s not worth talking about.