This morning in Statistics class I asked a guy how he could answer a question so coolly when he knew the answer was wrong. He gave me this pestered look and said, “I don’t care.” Even if he really did care but just couldn’t calculate the answer, this lazy response reprograms young people to be wishy-washy. Is it too hard to say you miscalculated? Or do you genuinely not care. Are students’ feelings of self-worth ebbing?

Just by linking the smallest instances can we see a sense of carelessness in the classroom:

• Teachers usually start class 5 -10 minutes after class officially begins. Students usually chat, text, or sleep.
• Students are thinking more about their text messages than what’s happening in class.
• Teachers talk most of the class and students aren’t engaged.
• If students don’t have to participate in a class, they likely never will.
• Students are in the maddest rush to walk out the classroom door ASAP.
• Most students dread the “overachievers.”
• Being liked by the teacher automatically translates to teacher’s pet.
• Students know they can pass certain courses without attending every class.
• Students who studied for a test often lie to their classmates that they did not.

Look no further for why students wait until the last chance to study. The evidence shows students clearly do care about themselves. They are practicing passive-aggressive behavior. People who don’t care simply choose not to perform. Student apathy is the root of procrastination. Unless a boy truly cares for a subject or at least a high grade in the class, of course he will wait until the night before the exam to study.

Louis is wasting a lot of time wondering why he procrastinates. If he cared more about learning or had some motivation to get an A, he wouldn’t be slumped on the couch, clueless. He does have the television on, which explains his disarrayed thoughts, but he’s obviously far more occupied in sports than anything his teachers says. More importantly, he worries more over his parents’ reactions to his D than his own opinion of this. If his parents didn’t care, neither would Louis. His mom sure doesn’t get the TV off though, does she? Anyhow, parental expectations aren’t enough in the long run for true success. It’s those who are creative and practice an inner locus of control who will level up to grad school, a Fortune 500, or successful self-employment.

What causes student apathy?

Students can tell who the motivated ones are long before their peers receive their college acceptance letters. How driven a student is begins with their birth. Parents may love their children, but love is not equal. If a mother or father cannot discipline their children for more than immediate gratification, he or she is crippling their child. If you come home to your child after a long day of work and just fall sleep on the couch in front of the TV, you are lazy, selfish, and irresponsible. Don’t wonder why your kid displays those same traits.

The brightest students I’ve known didn’t necessarily have the strictest parents. They had parents who introduced them to history, art, literature, and math at an early age. A high school friend told me that his family actively engages in political debate during meals at the dining table. My own grandmother read my mother Dante’s Inferno when she was seven years old. Of course she didn’t understand all of the vocabulary or concepts, but through one reading task my mother was developing an evolved and complex brain. In the absence of any training like this, it’s no surprise students can’t listen to their professor for one entire hour or even find a poem interesting.

Too many parents are blaming technology, professors, and the public education system for the losses of their own children. These parents ought to look at how they raised their kids. Superior students never back down from excellence. High school students can always take AP courses or additional classes at their local community college. Students in college can always study new subjects on their own or take additional units. No one is forced to tolerate substandard behavior.

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