That seems like an a-priory assumption.<p>I think it depends on overall context (socio-economic status of parents, what they see everyday, what other teachers do, what the policy of the school is in general, what their society at large perceives as success, etc.).<p>Empirical observation however -- and I&#x27;ve taught 2 different secondary schools myself although just for a couple of years -- tells us that some students are motivated and others are not. The teacher can try and nudge them towards the subject, but it wont do that much with most of the unmotivated students. My experience has been in what in the US you&#x27;d call &quot;inner city&quot; schools btw.<p>I&#x27;m not saying that this is an absolute rule, so individual counter-examples don&#x27;t really negate this, unless they do indicate a reverse GENERAL trend. Sure, you could get a greatly motivated student even in a crappy school with crappy teachers, the question is how often would that happen.<p>I also don&#x27;t agree that the teacher should be &quot;held to a higher standard&quot; (at least when meant to an extreme). Sure, there are indeed crappy teachers.<p>But students should come into school willing to learn and respecting the environment, something that&#x27;s not always the case. It shouldn&#x27;t be up to the teacher to do some special stunts to get the students basic attention -- instead of, say, playing mobile games on their smartphones, talking to each other loudly, even listening to music on headphones.