That's the dirty secret no one wants to admit. I'm a teacher, and of the 120 or so kids I see every day (middle school) I'd say about 30 are truly curious, academically inclined, capable of understanding, retaining, exploring, analyzing, and abstract thought. The other 90 just want gossip and games. It takes very little to satisfy them, so frankly, little is what they should get.
The first project of the Progressives was to restructure the American education system to a more democratic one. That took place in the 1890's and still goes on.
Now, the ineducable are trainable and our education system has been reduced to a network of training schools. The educable get shortchanged in such a system.