Having taught, I know that a great deal depends on the make up of the class. I've taught over 30 students in an Algebra class and had no problems. I've also taught classes with only 15 students and wanted to pull my hair out.

Kids who want to learn are easy to teach. Japanese schools routinely deal with classes far larger than what you'll find in most American schools. Kids who don't want to learn just suck the life right out of you. All it takes is one or two students who don't give a damn and are set on being disruptive to ruin things for everyone.

Once discipline problems begin, the question then becomes what can be done about it. If the school administration doesn't support the teachers in handling discipline problems then you can rest assured that the problems will continue and get worse. This is a very common complaint among teachers.

There's also the question of parental support. When I went to school, my father happened to be the head of the PTA. There was no way that I was going to get away with anything. The policy was simple - if you mess up in school, they're going to discipline (paddle) you. Then, God help you when you get home.

All to often, today's parents are automatically confrontational when they hear their child is misbehaving in class. "Why, my little Johnny would never do that!" In a pig's eye.

I remember a news story from several years ago that might indicate where this path will take us. There was a school district that was having a lot of problems with kids acting up on the buses. The parents refused to believe what was going on, so the school installed video cameras on the buses behind two-way mirrors. It was hard for the parents to dispute what was going on when their precious little darlings were caught on tape. The funny thing was that the district didn't have to install cameras on every bus. Because the students couldn't tell which buses had a camera behind the mirror, they started behaving all of the time. I hate to say it but the day may be near when schools have to do the same thing in classrooms.