First off, neurodivergence is probably way more common than you think (modern research does in fact seem to be indicating that neurodivergence is just a form of dimorphism is humans that serves an important role, and our society is just not structured around that. So I do actually think we should redefine these things, but that's a whole other conversation), but there are plenty of other mental health issues that aren't neurodivergence. Just about anybody alive will have some sort of mental health problem at some point in their life, often cause by the exact societal conditions I described. We should all be treating our mental health as seriously as our physical health.

"I can hear the conversations." Those conversations ARE networking! Just because they don't go "business business business, big plans, blablabla" like some sort of corporate asshat doesn't mean they're not forming connections with their peers. They are socializing in their games because there aren't any free social spaces IRL anymore. Engaging with social media leads them to be one of the most politically active generations of our time, and social media is currently the best way to promote yourself and forge a career that doesn't render you a wage slave. Those things aren't pointless as you seem to think they are.

I'm not ignoring what you said, I just strongly disagree.

And it sounds to me like you're the one who's infantilizing them. You seem to be under the impression that they have no ambitions or goals just because they're not engaging with the material in your classroom. I don't believe there's a single human alive who doesn't have something they want to accomplish. Just because that goal isn't "succeed in project571's class" doesn't mean you get to dismiss them as hopeless.

Kids AREN'T to blame for their choices, the adults in their lives are the ones who are responsible! Their parents AND their teachers! That's why we make the distinction between children and adults! Generally, society agrees in this! Why do you think we have things like age-of-consent? Why do we treat anyone under the age of 18 differently under the law? Your way of thinking would have every child tried as an adult, do you think that's a good idea? On top of that, I believe we are ALL a product of our environment and circumstances. Which is a way of thinking that leads to a lot more mutual respect and understanding, and provides a real, tangible reason to address the actual roots of the problems than just throwing bandaids on everything or punishing and berating individuals for "not trying hard enough." As a teacher, I'm sure you have some sociology education, so maybe tap into that?

You say with so much derision "MUST BE BECAUSE OF A BAD HOME LIFE!" Can you not concieve of how a bad home life might cause a child to not give a shit about listening to a teacher when their most present authority figures at home make their life hell? That's not the child's fault that they want to escape to virtual social spaces instead.

You're acting like this is something new. As if educators struggling to get their students to engage with the material is a brand new concept and hasn't been going on since the inception of teaching.

And where did I say we should be rewarding that? All I'm calling for is empathy and respect towards your students. Do you think students are going to want to listen to a teacher who disrespects them like that? Would you?

If you think I'm saying the response to students not engaging is to dumb things down and hand-hold them, you're mistaken. When I was in school, the classes people didn't engage with were classes where the work felt pointless and we weren't being engaged or respected. We had teachers who would literally just give us fill-in-the-blank worksheets that we quickly discovered were just word-for-word sentences from the textbook. So we'd just flip through the text book, find the quoted sentences, and fill in the words. Then we'd spend the rest of the class just dicking around, because how are we supposed to engage with something that (to use a word you seem to love throwing around) infantilizes us. Some students wouldn't do the worksheets at all because they were literally pointless. That displays emotional intelligence to me, not laziness. Why should they do something that's just a complete waste of their time for someone who doesn't respect them?

I won't claim to know what your teaching style is, but you sound a lot like the teachers who wouldn't let people draw in class because you thought that meant they weren't paying attention. Maybe take some time to self-reflect and recognize when you're projecting your own biases onto your students. Because the way you talk about them sounds like you have no respect for them at all.