Survived?

I'm back from kindergarten hell and I must say it was just as I expected.... Urg.
So: one little Machiavellian prince was enlisting the help of his table-mates to gang up on the slowest worker of the group. When I tried the standard "How would you feel if..." approach, the response was "We wouldn't care, right guys?" I told him I did not believe him, and that I was certain there were quite a few things he cared about. I stopped myself from naming them, as this might start sounding a bit like a threat......
BUT: I did have my chance to make a point. He went out of his way to let me know that he had finished his work. I looked him straight in the eye and said "So? Should I care?"
He didn't speak to me again for the duration.
God I hate this shit.
Mind you, I have worked with kids. I can work with kids, but it has to be on my terms, and I control the environment a hell of a lot more than can be expected of a room full of 19 boys and 6 girls all between the ages of 5&6 who are being expected to do work well above their emotional qualifications. I still sincerely and wholeheartedly feel that Kindergarten should be about learning how to share and get along and all that old-fashioned crap, and not about learning how to add, subtract, and finish sentences. But maybe I'm just biased, as my kid has been politely termed a "late bloomer" which in public education speak is code for "Fucked when he gets to first grade." Already, this soon out the gate, he hates school.
And given what I've seen, who could blame him?