Way back in the mid 50's, when I was a kid in second grade, I went to school in a very rural area. There was no air conditioning, heat was from a coal stove. Just one teacher, Miz Hamner, was teaching the second grade and the third grade, in the same room and at the same time. She did a great job, if you did what she said, you learned, if not, you didn't. It was a public school, without any amenities and very little money, but that didn't matter, the teachers taught and did their jobs (I guess they were motivated), most kids did well, the ones that didn't, well, that wasn't the teachers' fault.
She had a washtub, if a kid came in smelling too bad, they had to bathe in the tub...if they misbehaved, she had a wooden paddle with holes drilled in it so it would whistle as it slammed down on the kids' butts.
Funny, as long ago as that was, I still remember it fondly. Miz Hamner was a true lady. There was a TV program made later about her family, called the Waltons.
I LOVED the Waltons--kind of where my values lie and what my parents taught us. There's a LOT MORE to deal with nowadays, but I think if people can just get all the monkeys off their backs and just get back to simple values like giving compliments, not blaming others, recognizing the positive and the negative, dealing with things rather than complaining all the time, showing thanks, being thankful for what we have, not always saying that you have to have what the other guy does, recognizing the traits of personal responsiblity and effort, working with not against people, being honest, and so on and so on, things would go a lot better. That's my approach--those simple values. Besides, I'm a simple person so I have to take that approach:)