Steven Clarke, a New York City public-school teacher fellow and proud Ivy Leaguer, recently got fired for allegedly calling a class of tenth-grade students “‘filthy animals’ who belonged in a ‘f—ing zoo.” ”My parents,” he is said to have added, “did not sacrifice for me to go to Cornell so I could take care of a bunch of animals.”

Clarke’s excuse for cursing? He claimed he was just echoing the words of a student who had told him to “get the f— out of my face.”

Monkey see, monkey do.