Yes, I’ve covered a few AP classes and I’m always blown away by how HUMAN they seem compared to what I’m accustomed to. Don’t get me wrong, in every class I have at least 4 or 5 kids that are gems. But the other 27 are somewhere on the stupid-to-evil continuum, and it’s nonsense to claim that 27 little monsters are no harder to handle than 17.
Those teachers with 'education' degrees should be reserved for the little darlings who insist on disrupting the class and ruining it for everyone else.
Once parents learn that their children have been kicked out of the good class and can't get back in unless they spend two months with perfect behavior, they might make them behave instead of arguing with the school.
My kid is somewhat trouble in school, but part of my son’s problem is the nonsense he is being taught. For example, when they were studying Indonesia/SE Asia in his world history class the lessons stopped at 1973. My son pointed out how convenient that was since the teacher did not have to teach about The Killing Fields that resulted from our abandonment of anti-communist regimes in the area nor did the teacher have to mention the Vietnamese boat people (two of whom he interviewed for his unit project).
On the other hand, if my son has no interest in doing something, he won’t do it short of actual physical punishment. At a smaller, rural district, we had an agreement with the VP that my son got two spats from the school for every paper not turned in on time and satisfactorily completed. The current district
will not do that and my son has gone from straight A’s to barely passing. (He still gets walloped at home, but it seems to make less of an impression than getting it both places.)