When a kid is at school, doing their best and no one cares, they stop.
Getting grades, learning, coming first, and its a shrug, they stop.
When kids are made to feel like nothing, or what they are doing is nothing, they stop.
Few people fight to prove they are ‘worthy’, especially at school.
School is a place a kid is sent. A place where rules and regulations control them, (or attempt to).
School is a place where interactions often interferes in learning, and sometimes, are detrimental to learning.
Very bright kids, put in an average class, don’t want to be the ‘freak’ the one who knows everything, so back down. They stop studying, stop focusing so that they fit in.
Being average is what they aspire to, and might waste the rest of their lives underperforming, just to prevent being that ‘freak’ in High School.