I am somewhat skeptical of your claims, but in any case, I'd bet most of those kids knew that if they didn't sit down, shut up and stop poking the kid next to them that their parents would beat their butts. Their parents probably insisted that their kids work hard and monitored their progress.
Today, we have unruly children with parents who insist that the teacher is always at fault. You can't assign them extra homework because they don't do homework anyway. Detentions given are rarely on the same day as the infraction and if the parents insist that the child cannot miss the bus, then detention is out. Teachers can't take away recess and Principals don't want to hear about problems.
But it's all the teacher's fault!
Nowadays a kid backtalking a teacher wouldn't even raise an eyebrow. Last week we had one kid take off his chain necklace and whip another kid across the face and left a huge welt. The parents of the whipper refused to believe it happened in spite of adult and student witnesses. Unless it was on tape, her son was innocent.
We're not in Kansas anymore are we?
I have a picture of the class and the teachers used discipline.
In regards to your second paragraph, I agree whith what you say to a point; however, it's not an argument for the article I posted.