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One of these days they'll wake up. This isn't confined to any one school district but, the large majority of this behavior sure is pretty much confined to certain groups.

This disrespect for authority is not a taught behavior it is a learned one.

To these groups I say this.

Be careful parents one day you'll look at your child and see your self.

Thanks for the post - informative and challenging situation, eh?

My wife taught 3-4-5th grade for 35 years, the last 13 in a barrio school. My daughter is in her 4th year of teaching high school English and the AVID program in a suburban LA school. Their experiences are similar to what this teacher talks about in Pasadena.

The disruption, verbal abuse and physical threats (even from 4-5th graders) drove my wife to retire. There were always 3-5 boys (and an occasional girl) in her class that routinely disrupted learning to the detriment of every student in the class.

My daughter says that half of the kids want to learn and most of them try, but the other half goof off and don't try. It's a real pity.

My view is that it is the students behavior, their attitude toward authority and education, and the lack of parental control that is the real problem. A secondary problem is the accommodation and enabling by the school administration to avoid solving the problem.

What should be done? Have goal-setting and teamworking courses for the first days of each school year. Require a signed contract from each student and parent agreeing to the rules and to the mutually agreed goals.

Have an intolerance for disruption and violence in the school. When necessary, separate the cooperative kids from the disruptive. When disruption occurs routinely in a classroom, videotape (web-cams) the class for a week. Then bring all of the parents in (without the kids) and show them the videotape, and challenge them to deal with their kids. Remove all extra-curricular activities - sports, drama, etc from the disruptive students. Recognize only the kids who work toward their goals and succeed in them.

Maybe school should be treated more like a job. Pay kids who are cooperative and successful. Withhold payment from the ones who are disruptive. Make 10% of the per student grants from the state to the school part of this incentive program - and give the withheld money to the teacher who had to suffer the disruption. That would put the teacher in charge. My view is that the cost of education would go down since more kids would be working for the incentive, and more learning would occur.

Alas, the teachers union and district folks would never go for something like that.

Of course, there are many who make excuses for disruptive students. Like Assistant Superintendent George McKenna:

"Some of these kids deserve credit just for showing up" at school, given their chaotic home lives and troubled neighborhoods.

Spoken like a true burocrat. Make her spend 90 days...90 days? H-- 30 days! day-in-and-day-out down there in the trenchs and she'll be whistling a different tune PDQ.

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The Times quotes a mother, once kicked out of Muir, who went on to earn two masters' degrees.

Now she's an educational consultant and the mother of two boys who have generated more than their share of calls from Muir for fighting or mouthing off in class. Her boys are smart, but they are also boisterous and occasionally unruly, just as their mother was, she said.

First of all, what on earth is an "educational consultant"?? Second of all, she has two masters' degrees. Fine. In what? She also has two boys, whom she describes as "boisterous and occasionally unruly", yet no mention of the boys' father(s). And finially why does, and how could, an educated woman, with two masters' degrees, allow her sons to become like this? Especially when she knows first hand what it is like to be expelled from school.

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Why are middle-class black students lagging...For example, he said that middle-class black parents in general spent no more time on homework or tracking their children's schooling than poor white parents.

Apples and oranges. One set is middle class, and one set is lower class. Which only goes to prove that there is a big difference between having no money and being poor.

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Ogbu's "acting white" thesis rings true to me, though I'd also blame low expectations by principals and teachers.

I guess with a liberal that attitude is called "compassion". But with anybody else it's just plain racism.

Some kids decide to take advantage of education, and some don't. But if you mix members of the latter group in with those of the former, the otherwise high-achievers are downside-sticky, like velcro; they can be brought down. Meanwhile, the thugs are not generally upside sticky; it takes a miracle to pull them up.

That's sad, but there really is a very easy solution for this, you know, and it's the same solution they use in Japan:

You conduct a high-school entrance examination at the end of middle-school.

Those who have long since decided that Tupac and Biggie make good role models get their wish: they can drive trucks or catch a round in the chest. Why not? We need truck-drivers.

Meanwhile, those who strive for something higher can concentrate on their homework and substantive studies.

It's very simple, actually. This way helps everyone.