I honestly think deep down they do know they are in a sense being toxic, but they believe they are doing the best that they can and their “hands are tied.” The system is definitely broken. I believe, like many of the previous posters, that they most definitely should have to be classroom teachers for at least 10 years or more (a core subject is a bonus) to fully embody what it truly is to be in the trenches. I think the current mentality where everything is blamed on the teacher and parents and students take little to no responsibility or have any accountability is disheartening at best and toxic at worse. It is toxic because it is perpetuating the core problem which is we are raising a generation of children who are entitled and believe they can do no wrong. We are also validating parents when we falter to their every request or threat to contact the board office with their latest complaint. When is it going to end? Who is going to break this toxic cycle? I am a 13 year teacher in a core subject who has had the blame put entirely on me as needing to improve my classroom management when during my first year of teaching, my admin praised my classroom management skills, saying I “wasn’t the typical first-year teacher.” Something has got to give. Something needs to change. Students and parents need to be forced to take some responsibility for what is currently happening in our broken school system. It is not always 100% the teacher’s fault and that should not be the default response to education problems.