Focused

  I once read a joke as a teenager that resonated with me:  Student 1: "Did you know that ignorance and apathy are the two biggest problems in America?"  Student 2: "Don't know and don't care!"  As I come to the end of my third year as a high school teacher, I genuinely think this joke was on to something. Student apathy and ignorance seems to be at an all-time high.  According to a paper published by the Social Science Research Network in 2011, 8 years before COVID-19,  " Student apathy has risen to a level that places education in the United States at serious risks. The current U.S. student has become an unmotivated apathetic individual with a lack of interest, goals, and determination to succeed in the academic curriculum. The United States has fallen out of the top 10 countries in education levels of students and continuing on a downward spiral. Student apathy has been cited as a serious problem by 29% of teachers ranking higher than all other areas