Why adults must regain control of out of control classrooms

I’m hearing from teachers who say that kids are getting more disrespectful.Is that for real? What’s the evidence? As recently as 2018, 72% of teachers said that the stress of the job was worth it.

But in a June survey by the Rand Corporation, only 42% of teachers said that the stress of the job is still worth it.The most common complaint now reported by teachers is not low pay, or nasty parents, or difficult school administrators, but students: rude, out-of-control, disrespectful students. Over the past 23 years, I have visited more than 500 schools.

In recent years, I’m hearing more stories of kids who are actually attacking their teachers.And as a family doctor, I am encountering those stories firsthand.

Take one of my own patients, a teacher attacked by one of her own students for asking him to return to class from recess.  “Time’s up! Time to go back in!” she announced after multiple warnings.Suddenly, the student attacked her, grabbing and biting her left forearm.

It was a deep, tearing bite, leaving a gaping wound.I know, because I cleansed and sewed up the wound.No disciplinary action of any kind was taken against the boy, neither after this episode nor after any of the other similar previous episodes.

“He can’t help it, he’s on the [autism] spectrum,” the parents say, and the school does nothing.This teacher is not even persuaded that this boy is truly on the autism spectrum.

She thinks he enjoys inflicting pain on others.Nikki Hertzler, a teacher with 18 years of classroom experience, told me, “Teachers are quitting because of poorly behaved, disrespectful children.In the past, those children were the exception and we could deal with one or two.

Now, at least half the class is disrespectful and they also see no purpose to being in school.”Where is the disrespect coming from? What can parents and teachers do about it? And why has it gotten so much worse, just in the last few years? Those are some of the questions I try to an...