Students do not drop out, they are forced out.

Consider that statement for a second.

For me, it's a powerful one.  Along the lines with "Consider the glass half full, rather than half empty", it really changes how you view at-risk students in schools.  Essentially students will not leave a place that is doing them a service.  Maybe instead of viewing the disengaged student as someone who can't be helped, or needs to change, we should look at how the teaching can change to serve the student (to a point obviously, we aren't going to make a candy, puppy and firework course just because a student is skipping math).

I want to extend this a little bit further however.  We have the "force out" instead of the "drop-out", but we should also recognize students that are at risk of becoming a force out.  Let's call them, a "fade out".  I work as an EA in Peel Board's Summer School and these are the students I see most often.  The ones that are genuinely bright, capable students but either never show up or disrupt others around them because they aren't getting anything out of their school experience (for a variety of reasons).

With this different perspective of how students are feeling, I think we all as current and future educators can better serve others.  So please give it a second thought the next time you are ever frustrated with the performance or attitude of a student