I saw a documentary on TV the other day. It was about a Swedish teacher in a grammar school, who went to Finland to work in a class for a week, as some sort of experiment. (Maybe I should tell you that both Finnish and Swedish are official languages in Finland)
The Swedish teacher found the Finnish class different from his own, as it was very quiet in the classroom, the pupils were good mannered and even stod up by their desks when the teacher came into the room. On the whole, the climate was different from what he was used of. I made the same observation when watching the documentary.
I visisted my children at school when they were younger, and I was sometimes amazed on the lack of disciplin in the classroom. I am not saying that the class was disorderly but it was all but quiet and I felt sorry for the teacher, trying to make his voice heard. I also wondered why nothing was being done about it. And the funny thing is that on every parent-teacher conference we had, the same question always came up; most of the children lacked peace and quiet in the classroom!
It was different when I was a child. We were taught to sit quiet by our desk and raise our hand if we needed help. We could not leave the classroom without permission and did not sit chatting with our class mates during the lesson. It seems to be different now and I am not sure I think it is a good progress.
Some things have got better of course. Whereas we were taught that the teacher was always right, children today learn to questioning things in another way. They are taught to make their own mind up instead of just adopting views from school books. They are learning to speak out in a way that I never did. Those things are very good!
But is it wrong to have disciplin in the classroom? Is it too much to ask for, that the pupils won't play with their mobile phones or run about in the classroom during lessons? It seems as if that would be a "violation of integrity" somehow... And punishments, such as detention does not seem to occur here any more.
It does not make it any easier that the classes are usually big and the teachers are too few.
cj592
Pro 
It's a difficult situation. There ae fewer teachers coming into the profession, which is being deprofessionalised by government interference and media attention.
As a teacher myself it's hard to see classes which are noisy and disruptive, but for it seems that is how they are all the time (at home and with friends). Plus a lot of kids now know their 'rights', there is very little we can do- especially when some parents will be behind their kids regardless.
I have seen some teachers assaulted by parents- and the school turns a blind eye and supprts the parents- not the teacher