My daughter is in education too. It is discouraging to hear about the resistance she faces when trying to educate her students - from the students, other teachers, parents, and administrators.
I am very happy that your wife is one of the truly dedicated ones, not one who just likes the holidays, summer vacation and pension plan. Tell her that as a student, parent (and now grandparent), I appreciate what she is doing.
I have observed teachers who were fantastic and I have observed school superintendents making $125K a year (10 years ago) whose idea of a commencement address was to simply read essays by Irma Bombeck and Kurt Vonnegut, instead of contributing something original and personal to "fire up" the graduates.
I have observed children with ADD type behavior, where one required medical attention and another just needed to learn "no means no". The parents had not communicated that effectively.
I am ignorant about a lot of things. Aren't we all? I just posted a link to one train of thought I found interesting.
Anyway, plenzmd1 - I hope things continue to work so well for your boy. Children are such a blessing, we take them for granted sometimes.
Happy New Year!