Initially, most children want to do well in school. But the student who has experienced consistent failure in the classroom tends to lower his own expectations concerning school success. He may direct his energy outside the classroom to athletics or youth gangs or to other areas where he can experience the satisfaction of success. The student who has been negatively evaluated in the classroom rationalizes that school is not important to him because he believes it is impossible for him to succeed there. If a student is to continue to expect to do well in school, he needs to receive some positive evaluations for his academic performance. If an individual is to develop a positive concept of himself as a student. he needs to perform competently and to receive evaluations that he interprets to be positive within his own frame of reference.
When the student is perceived as a less competent learner, forces are set in motion that reduce the chances that his potential will be developed to its fullest extent in school. The other students and his teachers may come to view him as having less potential than he really has. The academic goals he sets for himself and those that are set for him by his well-intentioned teachers may not sufficiently challenge his true abilities. A student may divert his own personal resources to non-academic areas because he believes that success in academic subjects is not open to him. If he does not apply his maximum efforts to learning school subjects, he may fail to acquire some of the skills and knowledge he needs as a basis for further learning.
A student, who is consistently poor performer in the class room, will
