The Unbearable Frustration of Unteachable Students

I appear to have some of the dumbest students I've ever taught. Some
really bright ones too. I just met with each student in a conference
to discuss his or her second paper from start to finish. It's really
so dismaying when you feel you can't teach a student anything about
close reading or writing because he or she has not bothered to read
the assignment carefully or listen to you talk about the assignment in
class--several times, using examples students in the class  identified
and elaborating on them. And the students think they wrote good
papers. There is no getting through to them. Maybe I should just stop
assigning papers and give True or False exams instead. Maybe it's time
to retire.