1. Whoever determined that he does not “deserve” this is wrong. There may be other constraints, but no one gets to frame it as “deserves” when a child wants to learn something.
2. If a teacher is unable to teach Johnny to write a for loop, despite Johnny’s genuine utmost motivation, I would question teacher’s competence or at least fit.
3. Like any mentor, a professor in higher ed may want to choose whom to teach so that own expertise and teaching ability is realized to the fullest. Earlier in life, elementary school teacher’s luxury to do so may be limited (which is why their job is so difficult and hopefully well-compensated), and one bailing on a kid due to lack of patience or teaching competence is detestable.
4. If Johnny continues to pursue this with genuine utmost motivation, he will most likely succeed despite any incompetent teachers. If he does not succeed and yet continues to pursue this to the detriment to his life, that is something a psychologist should help him with.
As for Timmy, if he learns to produce the expected result with least effort, for which he receives constant praise from the teacher, and keeps coasting this way, that does him a major disservice as far as mental mental and self-actualisation in life.
Where is the transition? At some point ability is more important than effort.
There is no benefit in always being praised for your efforts if you cannot deliver the goods.
This relies on everyone's ability to learn being determined solely by motivation rather than innate ability. As someone who has tutored both deprived children and the very bright I can say this unfortunately isn't true, even though the world would be a better place if it was.
> Professor Hawking's laidback approach to education continued during his years studying physics at the University of Oxford. ''I once calculated that I did about a thousand hours' work in the three years I was there, an average of an hour a day.''
[0]: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/at-70-hawking-confesses-he...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#:~:text=Hawkin....
I believe that to learn well, you need to be challenged, but not too much. Ability-based evaluation only does that for students whose abilities happen to line up with the expected standard. It is bad both for gifted students and for struggling students.