Is Stupidity Contagious?

So, I have this one student. We'll call him Bill. Bill is a generally nice kid, funny, with good intentions. He tries to do his work. But he, well... He'll be a successful person because he does his work. But chemistry is not his bag, if you get my drift.

Bill wants to do well, so he tries to align himself with those who do well.

First he sat next to an A student we'll call Matt. Matt always does his work, is quiet and studious, and seems to have a good background, with firm basics. A few weeks into sitting with Bill, he suddenly had a hard time deciding whether 400 was bigger or smaller than 200. No joke. His grade dropped from an A mp 1 to a low C mp 2. He told Bill to move, because he, Matt, needed to concentrate. So Bill moved. That was in the middle of mp3. Matt is back up to A level work, understanding how to apply gas laws on his own.

Where did Bill move? He moved over next to Andy. Andy came into our class in the mid of the year, and is a very hard worker. He wants this credit with a high grade. He got an A MP 3. 

Yesterday, Andy didn't know what the word "constant" meant, though we had gone over it, and couldn't tell what half of 600 was.

So, you medico types out there, is Bill killing his table-mates brain cells? Or just numbing them? Since Matt seems to have recovered, at least partially, it's probably numbing? 

Time to have a talk with Andy, I think.

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