Reality Vs. Ideally

My love for literature led me, partially, to teaching English at the high school level. On my Pre-College English class's blog In Need of Coffee, I give in the sub-heading the following thought:
When a student understands the words of a text, interacts with those words beyond the assingment given, allows those words to have meaning in his or her life, there is no greater satisfaction for a teacher of literature.

The converse, I suppose, would also be true. That, when a student fails to understand the words of a text, fails to interact with those words beyond the assignment given, and fails to allow those words to have meaning in his or her life, there is no greater disappointment fo a teacher of literature.

I've heard too many of my students proclaim their dislike for a novel, short story, or autobiography without even approaching any of the deeper meaning of the text. Maybe some students are incapable of seeing beyond the words written; perhaps some don't want to see beyond the words written. Either reason saddens me at best.