Turtles on their Backs

I'm sure students are learning a lot these days, but without question, a key trait is helplessness.  As in Learned Helplessness.

I visit classrooms a lot and there are invariably two or three kids checked out, shredding their pencil or picking gravel out of their shoe tread or contributing to the detritus on the floor.  When asked if it might not be useful to dial into the lesson for a bit, just in case anything valuable gets shared, they are typically quite honest.  

"No, she'll help me later."  "I'm in the small (or special)  group." "I get a different worksheet."

These lines are delivered matter-of-factly.  Either these kids aren't aware that they ought to be aiming for a different kind of special group, or we have unwittingly elevated intervention strategies to entitlement status.  

Many believe whole class instruction is on course to yield to student-centered learning.   Will intrinsic motivation produce enough initiative to see students through?