A sad state of affairs

So I began the semester with 64 students. Of those, 2 are already gone three weeks in - one dropped last week and another I force-dropped after not showing for the first two weeks.

I met a senior teacher in the hall this evening and commented that I was feeling frustrated at the complete lack of effort that a disturbingly large portion of my class is displaying, even at this early date.

I was then informed that I can expect about 40 students to finish the class, 45 in a very lucky semester. A handful of those will still get a D or F, although most of the failing students drop before final grade reports, in my own experience.

40/64. That's 62.5% - a failing grade for us as educators.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water, push his nose in it, threaten him with the glue factory, and you still can't make him drink. I also know that students don't do well for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with my class in particular. But man, it's still a little depressing.