I am a teacher. Most experienced teachers can predict how a problem student will behave as a young adult. Such students harm the education of other students in the class. Also motivation of a devoted teacher also becomes low. it does not affect teachers who only care for money. The parents either do not care, or blame the teacher because their angel can never do wrong. All students in the class are aware of this problem. In my experience, if such students are forced to do a lot of extra home work, they reform in just 3 days. This will reduce the number of welfare drones and criminals in future. I believe there should be consequences that are more painful than studying and behaving decently, for both problem children and problem parents . For children less than 12 years of age, we may ignore but after that every year their work and behaviour should improve. This will also improve children from uneducated families, or families with a bad parent. what are the harms in this approach?
A take off from a saying: Leadership perceived, leadership achieved. Welcome to the forum @Alan Davis. May your teaching days never end and with each lesson you teach, may you learn a lesson as well.
The whole atmosphere of schooling changed when authorities became way too lenient with pupils, they are now reaping the 'non' benefits of this approach
Spare the rod and spoil the child, or something like that. The problem at school today is that teachers can no more use the rod or there are consequences to the teacher. I went to a parochial school and was taught by nuns or if necessary disciplined by nuns. Nuns were one notch below Marine drill sergeants. At home there was discipline as well. Today, if the teacher's hands are tied and the parents don't care you get a problem child.
I had a friend who, when he retired decided to be a janitor in a local school. At the end he was very frustrated because if he tried to get a kid to pick up trash they'd just thrown on the floor, he'd be told that his lawyer(the kid's) would come down on my friend. The courts are responsible for allowing a lot of this litigiousness to perpetuate.
Question could be, would any of us, on this forum, want to be a middle school or high school teacher today? As for me, and my wife, we definitely wouldn't! Now, on the other hand, if the school was a Christian School or even a Private School, we'd feel different. Farm and ranch students don't seem to "get out of control" like the inner-city students can. But, then again, the inner-city students don't have the crop/livestock responsibilities that farm and ranch students do. Farm/ranch students don't hang out at McDonalds or a local mall, like inner-city ones do. I always had farm work to do after school and on weekends.
I taught high school and middle school. High schoolers were better at controlling their raging hormones, for the most part, than middle schoolers, who were monsters. The systems I taught under were better for the upper grades, abysmal for the lower ones. I lasted two years at the high school level, nine weeks at the middle school level, before I quit teaching, for good. When I quit, I was the last teacher in my hiring groups to go. Everyone else had already headed for the hills! Unless the system is overhauled, with far more discipline and far less bleeding heart nonsense, the US will keep churning out grossly under-educated citizens who will accelerate our rush towards true Third World standing! Bet on it!
I found another method more useful. I would give a lot of boring work to the guilty student. The student would request me "sir, this work is more painful than physical punishment". In just three days the student would reform.
Every one wants their child to do well in life. If you concentrate on this point, people are likely to agree. If you say you were insulted, people may not be interested. In similar circumstances I often write about facts which ordinary people did not know but which would benefit them. In a few cases, the governments changed their policies in a few days, for example the Afghanistan war. I do not know if it was a coincidence or if other people also wrote the same thing and the government had to listen. I request you to inform all your friends and family of the facts how this is damaging the careers of their children and grandchildren and tell them to write to newspapers, television and to politicians. Sometimes the governments change their policies in a few days. Even if the government does not change, your friends and family will appreciate you more. Remember do not emphasise how your feelings were hurt. Tell how the careers of their children were damaged.
@Alan Davis, I understood your first posts but I didn't understand your response to @Trevalius Guyus. What you are saying doesn't seem to be a reply to the post that you quoted or, at least, I am not making the connection.