I can't. I won't. I will never.

It is this that frustrates me in the teaching job: some kids seem to be unable to do what you want them to do. You talk and talk and it doesn't seep into their little heads what they are supposed to do. So I explain again, and while the brighter kids have finished their task, the slower ones keep staring at me with dumbstruck faces. They're nice kids, but their heads aren't exactly in the classroom.
So I go and talk to the teacher. Kid So-and-So and boy Can't-Sit-Still weren't paying attention today. Implicit is the question "How do I deal?" The answer I get baffles me: Don't deal. So-and-So is always like that. On the playground, in class. He dreams. Never knows what to do. Can't-Sit-Still is a little pain in the ass.
I want them all to perform the task I set them. I hate filling out their questions in red biro, because they weren't paying attention and didn't realise they had to copy something from the blackboard. Should I, as a teacher, just let them be and forget all about the dreamers? No, I don't think so, and I do believe that they can do the task set before them if only brought to them in the right way. Unfortunately no-one cares to tell me what is the correct way to have these children take part in class.