Not-So-Great Expectations

So I was reading a book last night at Barnes and Noble called Not in My Classroom . It mentioned something I've heard before - that students will live either up or down to your expectations (within reason, of course - I don't expect them to recite pi to 400 places or anything).

However, in my experience, this simply isn't true. Some of my Journalism I students have continually caught me by surprise by asking for more work when they finished their own! On the other hand, I expect more work from my editors, and on a number of occasions I've seen them working on assignments for another class while their work in THIS class went unfinished.

I really was caught off guard by this.