"Kids have not changed — it's the times that have changed," he said.
"When you're standing in front of the classroom, talking, there are 30 to 40 kids looking at you, nodding their heads, but under the desk they are texting.
"So I'd call on one of them: 'Johnny, do you understand what I said, and can you tell the class what I said?'
" 'Mister, you know what you said,' " came a typical reply.
Montanez followed up with a second question: "Who can help Johnny understand what I'm talking about?"
The answer was "silence," he said. "They are always texting or something."
He asked one of his female students what she would do if she didn't have her cell phone. "I'd die," she told him.
"Drawing, painting, and sculpture are like blacksmithing today to kids who have never gone to a museum. We're asking these kids to do something that they don't relate to.
"The reason they are mad-bored is because they have all this technology, and can access anything, instantly."
"Kids are kids, and now there's this incredible distraction.
Teachers "have to have patience, real patience," he said.