This is only from my limited (< 5 years) experience teaching at the college level, but I've found myself surprised the sorts of things I have to put in my syllabus. I think it's an effect of our litigious culture. Your syllabus becomes like your contract, so whenever you enforce a policy, you can point to the syllabus. And I'd imagine in high schools, when you have to deal with students and their parents and the administrators, that's especially true. But I don't know.
Oh, yes, this is exactly what it was. But the content of the syllabus indicated that what the teacher had to deal with on a daily basis wasn't so much teaching unruly students as trying to keep a bunch of thugs from killing and raping each other.
It's depressing to realize that there are entire populations of teenagers who have no idea how to behave or help themselves. It's obviously not the fault of the school system, but these kids need to be in "how to be a decent human being" classes, not English classes. But of course we've got to teach to the standards, right? It's just a horrible endless cycle and it's overwhelming to even think about.
I mean, I look at my son right now and I think about all the instruction I have to give him just so he won't remain the little needy selfish animal he was when he was born. You have to TEACH people how to empathize and love each other, and if kids don't get that from day one... ugh. Please, people, just give me all your babies and I will love them.
I think I've mentioned this before, but one of the reasons we moved to the 'burb we're at now was the school system. We knew we were going to spawn, so we researched house prices, neighborhoods, and schools equally. for a plain old public school, the offspring have gotten a decent education, had less trouble with bullies than we feared, and while exposed to booze, smex in the bathrooms (during the school day!) and a scary amount of illegal drugs (also in the bathroom and many other spots), are handling themselves well. Thank God.
This is basically what I'm aiming for. Anyone who can afford to send their kid to private school around here absolutely does, but we want our kiddo to learn how to deal with peers who may not have good home lives. That said, I don't want to send him into the kiddie equivalent of Thunderdome. From what I've heard, our local primary and middle schools are definitely on the upswing, so they should be quite nice by the time Sharkbite gets thrown in the mix, but the high schools are all... well. Yeah. So we'll just play it by ear.
Can I just say it scares the crap out of me every time a kid gets shot around here? Because they do. Couple times a year.