A teacher often has at least half a dozen real problem children, yet he or she still must teach the curriculum to the rest of the class. There are many reasons for the increase in the number of problem children. Legislatively mandated placement of children in the least-restrictive environment has sent special education students back to regular classrooms without a reduction in class sizes. All that teachers know is they are experiencing a whole lot of stress. The everyday realities of the classroom will not make the six o'clock news.
Classrooms are pretty similar.
There is the same cast of characters in every classroom. At the seminars and workshops I conduct, teachers may say different things initially, but they all end up saying how stressful it is and how understaffed their schools are. They say that they became teachers without having the tools for classroom management. That is a very complex issue. Teachers have been complaining about the lack of training for 40 years.