On the other hand, sometimes they are disruptive precisely because they require a different type of environment than the one that they are being given. Yes, the abusive household set the dominoes up, but the behavioral opportunities of the one-size-fits-all classroom model allows them to fall. I think the real problem is that the rehabilitative environment they really need--extra emotional support and retraining, that is, not extra punishment--is not something the schools can realistically afford. And every publicly-funded attempt I've seen at such an environment ends up being somewhere between a slight and a colossal failure.
That said, I'm obviously biased because I took my kids out of the system at the first available opportunity. In the same way that being in the abusive environment doesn't magically make the abused kids more resilient to abuse, I don't believe that being in a disruptive school environment will teach them how to deal with disruptive people.
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