Will we ever live to that day when news outlets would find time to come to schools and record the day-by-day job of teachers on cameras and make it newsworthy? The ABC's, the multiplication facts, the essential elements of a story, the story time, the special triangles, the evolution theory, the trig, the history of Middle Ages, the periodic table of elements...

... but no, unless there is that short word "sex" in it, that kind of stuff is too boring. Who cares about the multiplication table when there are computers?..

I am also curious why the teacher/student relationship has been called out as somehow involving a higher degree of trust than other relationships between adults and minors, such as priest/sunday school pupil, scout leader/scout, etc. ?

I do see them as more important - I cannot imagine an educated society without teachers, but priests and scout leaders are optional to me - but I do not see teachers as somehow owing a greater level of care to the children than other adults to whom the parents entrust their offspring.

Unless it is the mandatory aspect of schooling that you had in mind, BobbyDavis - did you mean to say that because parents MUST send the children to schools, the school administrators MUST exercise a greater level of scrutiny of teachers than, say, clerical bureaucrats or top level scout leadership? Can you please clarify what you meant? I do see how the governmental mandate of compulsory schooling would lead you to expect a higher degree of scrutiny of teachers. Please consider that some of the best teachers would find the practice of video surveillance disrespectful, to the point of being stultifying (thanks Red Panda for a first person account!), and as a result, some of the best teachers would migrate to other professions. So you might end up worse off, rather than better off.

If you personally worry about your child(ren)'s teachers' conduct, the best approach is to develop a close relationship with the teachers to get to know them well.