Questions

I spent my entire run this evening thinking about how to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and school life as a whole.  For too long students have been simply passed along without real signs of achievement.  They've been told that they're good, even though some may not be, and are advancing even though they are not ready.  And when I try to challenge them, they revolt and choose to do shoddy work (or nothing at all) because, in their experience, they'll pass anyway.

So my question is this:  How do we teach responsibility?  How do we show students that life doesn't hand us things whenever we want them?  How do we show students that they need to work to be successful?  How do we teach them self-sufficiency?  It's tough.