I don't like succumbing to the argument that we let the losers fail and I devote my full attention to the students who care, because what makes me a good professor is that even students who struggle end up learning something valuable and memorable. But I also hear what my student was saying--he has been looking forward to this semester and learning this material and he is bummed out that so much of class is "can you take out your book? did you do the reading? can you stop private conversation?"