Currently Reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) By Betty Smith see related

Here's a piece from this book that, as a teacher, makes me stop and think.

It would seem as if all the unwanted children would stick together and be one against the things that were against them. But not so. They hated each other as much as the teacher hated them. They aped the teacher's snarling manner when they spoke to each other.

There was always one unfortunate whom the teacher singled out and used for a scapegoat. This poor child was the nagged one, the tormented one, the one on whom she vented her spinsterly spleen. As soon as a child received this dubious recognition, the other children turned on him and duplicated the teacher's torments. Characteristically, they fawned on those close to the teacher's heart. Maybe they figured they were nearer to the throne that way.