Looking focused

Jordan has to write a couple of essays for middle school application purposes. To the question, "What rule do you have a hard time following and why?" he quickly dictated the following response:

"I have a hard time looking completely focused. When teachers talk, you are supposed to be looking at them, watching everything that they do, and not doing anything to distract anyone. I am not usually doing anything to distract anyone, but they want me to also look engaged, which makes my mind drift. When I am fiddling with something I am still completely listening to what the teacher is saying and taking everything in, but it’s hard to also look engaged. At my old school we had something called a fidget where you could talk to the teacher outside of class and she could say yes or no to your fidget, telling you whether you could use it or not."

I find this fascinating. I am especially fascinated that he chose a social rule, one that is probably not written anywhere or even explicitly stated, but that he gets in trouble for not following. 

I wonder if it is true that he is taking everything in when he appears inattentive. Another possibility is that he just cannot give the teacher the visible attention he is supposed to give and knows it. Yet another possibility is that he thinks he is attending fully but actually is not; this seems the most likely, human awareness of multitasking being what it is (not).