>Parents expect teachers to work miracles... I think this sums it up well, and it's sad. My wife works in public school for the last few years, and has persona

>Parents expect teachers to work miracles... I think this sums it up well, and it's sad. My wife works in public school for the last few years, and has personally been yelled at by parent that said "my child would never do anything like that!" (the kid had destroyed a school book, even admitted he did it...) The public fight against the teachers, and the teachers are convinced that school should be fun and play time instead of primarily a learning time. So not only does discipline slide, so does learning, and everyone is part of the problem. A dead comment below pointed out the difference between "gun violence" and "simply violence", it just so happened the story I was relaying was about guns. But I think other forms of abuse are pervasive everywhere, and gun violence affects only a tiny amount of the population. Which is why it was such a striking point for that school and those kids. He completely misunderstood the implications. Edit: I want to also reiterate that while I taught in college, the students were more interested in Facebook, video games and their phones than learning. This is a student problem as much as anything else.