Are some students more equal than others?

Kendrey, this writer's favorite Psalm is the 23rd, The Lord Is My Shepherd.  Yes, often we do not know where we need to go; we cannot see far enough ahead.  Therefore, this writer prays for guidance.  You apply the same model to teacher-student relations.  Ideally, the teacher ought to know where the student needs to go and point the student in that direction.  Also, as you note, it is important to connect theory to practice as much as possible to give students full value and practical handles to understand and apply our theory, knowledge, information.  Also, equal treatment of students is important.  There is nothing more depressing to an ethical teacher than to see a student plagiarize work from another in the same course - and face no penalties for outright theft.  This happened at another online place where this writer taught last term.  Equal treatment means you cannot steal from others for free.  In this case, unequal treatment won, for the for-profit online university did not want to lose the tuition funds from the cheater!  Imagine.  Dr. Rux