> I can recall two teachers that were driven to or near to nervous breakdowns by my class.

That was something I noticed when I switched schools in grade 10. Every year of school prior to that year, at some point at least one of my teachers snapped (well, not as badly as you described, but enough to make me feel really bad) and yelled at us. But when I switched to my current school, I haven't seen it that often. In fact, the only incident I can remember offhand is an isolated incident with a strict substitute teacher earlier this year.

This of course begs the question, who's different, the teachers or the students? Well, we're definitely working with a fresh batch of staff and students since I switched to this school from across town.

I really didn't want to throw gender issues into this, but I've noticed that my male teachers are much more laid back than the female teachers I've had. This seems to have two effects: First, the male teachers are able to deal with the goof-offs on their own level better. But as a result, the goof-offs don't try to cause trouble with them since they're harder targets. This doesn't bode well for the stricter teachers, who are not only susceptible to this level of misbehaviour, but also attract more of it due to their demeanor.

The male/female teacher idea seems to be supported more here since I had far more female teachers before high school than I do now. In all my high school courses, I have had 20 courses taught by male teachers and 15 courses taught by female teachers. Before that, I had a total of two male teachers.

OK, my dad just came in and told me to go get chicken for dinner. So I've gotta make this short. It seems that my teachers are geniunely happier here, since there are still many troublemakers at our school, but the staff knows how to handle them better. I like my school. =)

--Pliff"Will hopefully never be a troublemaker"ilif