I wonder how much of the experience you describe has to do with the teacher’s attitude. What I mean is: when I have been successful as a teacher, it’s been in situations where I was able to position myself as a co-learner or a coach, and/or communicate to students that I value them as people. High school students are so used to being treated as the inferior in the power relation, to being told (implicitly or explicitly) that their opinions and interests are less important than those of the adults in the organization – so a teacher who shares power can often turn cynicism or jadedness into an eagerness to learn, or at the very least an increasing willingness not to resist success.