<p>Denise515,</p>
<p>A few pages back you said that your son would have been disposable if disruptive 5th graders were not allowed in school. Then you said that you made the decision in 7th to have your son tested, medicated, enter behavioral therapy, etc. Might you have made the decision 2 years earlier had it been the case that exiting him from school for his behavior was imminent? </p>
<p>As my husband (we are both teachers) says, nothing changes with student behavior until the parents are negatively impacted. Kids are disruptive, disrespectful, and parents are disinterested, but let a kid get kicked off the bus and require rides to and from school and it is a national tragedy. </p>
<p>At some point the teachers have to deal with the 28 kids in the classroom that ARE doing what they are supposed to do and protect them from the ones who are troubled, disinterested, etc. If we still had strong communities, with more parents in the classrooms to see how the neighbor kids act, perhaps social censure would kick in. As it is, the vast majority of parents are not there to back the teacher up and require good behavior, but are aiding and abetting their children in being disruptive. I had a parent yesterday who wanted me to change a grade on a blank paper because the child “had an answer in his head, he just didn’t write it down.” Seriously?</p>