Tell it, brother.

A young man in high school, Jeff Bliss, was caught on a classmate's cell phone camera telling off a history teacher for refusing to teach, doing nothing more than handing out packets. 

The disturbing part of the story is that she kicked him out of class for speaking truth to her: "If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a frickin’ packet, yo. There’s kids in here who don’t learn like that. They need to learn face-to-face. You’re just getting mad because I’m pointing out the obvious." 

Her response was to tell the young man to quit wasting her time.

That isn't a teacher.  That's a chair-warmer.  That's a classroom monitor.  That should be paid less than an actual teacher is paid. 

I do have a textbook I'm writing.  I do expect my students to read it.  What we do in class is different from what is in the textbook, but what we do reinforces the textbook: I actually walk them through the steps of writing a  paper with a sample topic after they've read the unit. 

I do not hand them a textbook and go "there you go.  I won't help you learn it; leave me alone."  Not if I have any choice and control in the matter (which I didn't last semester).  I don't do that with packets, either.  I don't assign busy work.  Everything we do in class ties directly into the project we're working on.  And if a student asks, I'm happy to explain how it does, or go further in depth with any part of the project.

I cannot imagine handing most students a packet and expecting that to be the whole of the thing.  I may learn best like that, but I am fully aware that most of my students don't.