Your external motivators are for being phyiscally present in class, not for paying attention much less doing the homework and much less going beyond the recomme

Your external motivators are for being phyiscally present in class, not for paying attention much less doing the homework and much less going beyond the recommendations. Yes, I am certain I could become interested in them, but there would have to be a reason for it. I am not intrinsically interested in them. This means that for me to actually put effort into them some external motivation would be necessary. When I went through, grades and their tie to college admission (and my parents emphasis on them) was quite sufficient. But if I thought lower grades were just fine, then I would still have learned a great deal about the subjects I was interested in, but very little about the others.