Philosophy of Education

Now that I have done this whole teaching thing for a while, I think I'm ready to redefine my philosophy of teaching. I bought in to that "Every child can learn" thing for about two weeks, and I'm completely over that kind of optimism now. Here it is, "A teacher can only teach a student what the student is willing to be taught." There. I'm tired of everyone placing all the responsibility on the teachers. Have you met these students? There is nothing I can do for a student that skips class most of the time and sleeps through it the rest of the time. I can't do anything for a student that doesn't bring pencil and paper to school. I can't do anything for a student that chooses to cheat on a major exam, knowing that I give zeros for cheating. I can't make a student do anything that the student doesn't want to do. I will go above and beyond for any student that needs me to, but I'm through trying to help those that couldn't care less.