Similarly, my first exposure to programming was in a high school AP (advanced placement/college credit) class taught by a math teacher. The teacher would give us an assignment and then leave the room for the rest of the period. As a group we would come up with an answer in about 5 minutes and then spend the rest of the time playing games on the class computers. His teaching method wasn't exactly effective for me, and needless to say I didn't learn a whole lot. I ended up getting a 1 (on a scale of 1-5, 1 being terrible) on the exam. The way I ended up learning and becoming infatuated with programming was with my TI-82 calculator. By trial and error I would write programs for games, class notes (hi-tech cheat sheets) and animations. In college I began taking "real" programming classes, but found the teaching to be both dated and lacking real-world application. I kept learning through side projects though and now, 12 years later, I realize that in this vocation, there is never an end to learning and that people can learn in so many different ways.

I think the misconception some teachers have is that if a student is struggling, he or she is either incapable of learning the material or just not trying. The reality is that it could just be a reflection of how effective the teacher's methods are for that particular student.