Cost of Disruptive Students

[DanaC]

As much as having to cope with disruptive students may have a negative effect on later academic success or earnings (emphasis on 'may' as I have some doubts about the study) surely at another level it teaches kids how to live in a society of different people. The world is not ideal. Workplaces are not ideal. Families are not ideal. Sooner or later we all have to interact with people who are not perfectly attuned to their environment or wholly committed to the project or venture at hand.

I think educational establishments can correct for a lot of environmental or cultural disadvantages. They can ameliorate inequalities of opportunity and plug some of the gaps borne of racial, gender or income disparity - but they cannot and should not correct for everything. They cannot provide a perfect set of learners.