By doing everything for students, we’re teaching them not to give a shit.
Schools talk a big game about aspiration. High flyers. Dream big. Growth mindset. But it’s all bullshit. What they actually train is apathy. Effort is optional. Failure is feared. Ambition is actively discouraged. Not overtly, but structurally. Slowly. Systematically. Kids don’t opt out because they’re lazy (well not always). They opt out because school teaches them that nothing’s worth opting in for.
Problem
School doesn’t build ambition. It bleaches it out. Every structural decision—from lesson length to marking policy—is designed to remove difficulty, friction, and failure. But you can’t develop drive in a system that smooths every fucking bump in the road.
Every official that comes in
Cripples us leaves us maimed
Silent and tamed
And with our flesh and bones
He builds his homesWar within a Breath, Rage Against the Machine
Jeff DeGraff nails it: ambition is about the future. Striving for what could be. But schools operate like fucking fragile museums—don’t touch, don’t question, stay safe. The moment a student shows too much energy, interest or confidence, the system clips their wings. Because ambition is inconvenient. It disrupts. It’s messy. And schools hate messy.
Instead, students are taught that doing the bare minimum is fine. Don’t worry if you didn’t do your homework, we’ll give you another copy. Struggling to revise? We’ll give you a ‘revision plan’ that’s so generic it might as well be a colouring sheet. Missed your coursework deadline for the fifth time? No worries—we’ll move the goalposts again. Every time we “support” them like this, we teach them: you don’t need to try. We’ll carry you. Forgot your pen?
Richard Shotton’s insight is brutal and fucking accurate: the easier something is to get, the less we value it. I’ve seen it so many times. So when schools hand-feed everything, wrap learning in bubble wrap, and remove every challenge, students stop caring. Not because they’re broken. But because they’re rational.
They’ve figured out the game. Play along. Sit still. Don’t try too hard. Say the right thing. Get your certificate. Go. And don’t expect to feel anything about it.
Causes
- Over-accommodation disguised as support
Every missed deadline, ignored sanction, and copied resource erodes any reason to be organised. We claim it’s inclusion. It’s not. It’s institutional learned helplessness. - Terror of unfairness
Schools would rather hold everyone back than risk one student being “left behind”. So ambition is levelled down, not up. You’re not allowed to be better. You’re allowed to be equal—in the dullest, lowest sense. - Compliance > Challenge
Students who question things are seen as difficult. High performers are expected to self-manage while staff are thrown at the bottom set. We’re not developing talent. We’re firefighting. - No incentive to give a shit
When your grade is predicted, your work is ticked, your feedback is scripted, and your praise is templated, why the fuck would you care? - The optics game
Schools want to look aspirational without doing anything hard. That’s why you get ambition posters on the wall and 85% of students coasting like it’s a lifestyle.
Effects
- Students who could fly are sat on their hands.
- Gifted kids underachieve out of boredom or social pressure.
- Hard work becomes stigmatised—“you try too hard” or you dare pack a pencil case, and you put a target on your back.
- Organisation, punctuality, resilience? Gone. Kids expect adults to handle it all.
- Real ambition is mocked, punished, or ignored.
They’re not just underprepared for the real world. They’re being programmed to fear it. Or worse, to expect it to be as padded and consequence-free as the system that raised them.
Solutions
- Make it harder
Yes, harder. Real deadlines. Real consequences. Real challenge. Stop fucking apologising for expecting effort. - Stop removing friction
As Shotton says: friction breeds value. Let them work. Let them struggle. Let them own their shit. - Toughen up the rules—for the right reasons
Not to dominate. To teach structure, consistency, and accountability. Drive doesn’t come from freedom. It comes from discipline. - Praise ambition—even when it’s inconvenient
Stop labelling driven kids as arrogant. Encourage challenge. Celebrate effort that goes beyond, not just effort that ticks the box. - Design for investment, not attendance
Don’t just make school a place they show up to. Make it a place where it means something to strive.
Conclusion
We haven’t just made school too easy. We’ve made it too empty. In our quest to support every student, we’ve ended up neutering all of them. Ambition isn’t dying in kids. It’s being actively smothered by a system that’s too scared to demand anything real.
If we want young people to have drive, grit, and vision, we need to give them something worth striving for—and stop carrying them over every hurdle like they’re made of glass.
