Could considering student strengths move kids to desire something beyond average?

Rose’s tale of a boy growing up in a violent area, plagued with lack of intellectual influence and guidance, and a poor education system is not as uncommon a story as we may think. In fact, growing up in a similar area in California, I can attest that this seems more the norm in some areas than the rarity. Many kids use defenses of indifference to education as a means to shield themselves from the embarrassment of not knowing elementary concepts that they’ve seen in school a million times. Yet, this problem is continually seen and often ignored across the board.
From what we have read of Rose’s background, we know that though he spent years behind, bored, and indifferent in many of his classes, we also learn that as a child he had a budding interest in chemistry, astronomy, and sciences; which led him to expand his knowledge through literary practices. Most students, both those who are accelerated in their education and those falling behind have some interest or area in which they excel or are engrossed by.
Seeing how Rose’s interest in sciences led him to build his skills in reading and drawing, do you think that applying other disciplines to a particular area of interest to each individual student could help them further their learning in other areas? (For instance would a child who is interested in cooking benefit from learning to improve reading and writing skills through reading and writing recipes, improve mathematic skills through learning measurements through cooking, chemistry and biology skills through learning about nutrition and reactions when cooking, history through learning of how food and culinary arts have developed and changed throughout the years and the world?) Do you think perhaps this would not only generate interest in individual students having trouble, but perhaps provide applicability to the things their learning? Or on the other hand do you think specializing in too specific an area could close off doors to learning in other areas? Is this kind of teaching even possible in today’s education system?