Joshua Kaplowitz tells the sad story of his short career as an inner-city teacher. What stood out for me was this: "I quickly learned from such experiences how essential parental support is in determining whether a school succeeds in educating a child." A lot of American parents really don't raise their children responsibly by teaching them proper behavior. And then they go and blame the teacher when their brats prove incapable of learning anything.

Also, he says

the training program skimped on actual teaching and classroom-management techniques, instead overwhelming us with sensitivity training. My group spent hours on an activity where everyone stood in a line and then took steps forward or backward based on whether we were the oppressor or the oppressed in the categories of race, income, and religion.

As a non-believer, I suppose that I ought to feel oppressed, since I'm in the minority. Sorry, I don't. (link via max power).

Update
Kids can really be monsters: in Denver, "a group of fifth-graders tried to poison a schoolmate by putting pills, glue, lead and chalk in her drinks."