My parents are both teachers, and my mom has received some national recognition for her successes as well, but I've never really pried them for info about their past experiences. I remember last year my mom was complaining about a parent who questioned her teaching methods and ability, because of her son's reading level, and because of how poorly he had done in testing. Said parent CCed the principal and the superintendent and threatened to transfer her child to a neighboring school district.

My mom replied with something like,

"Dear Parent,

I am sorry you feel that our friend, Student, has not been performing well in certain aspects of the curriculum. I have noticed this as well, and I have tried to help him in whatever way that I can. This becomes especially hard, though, when Student is taken out of school in the middle of the quarter for a three week long vacation (actually happened), and regularly misses class on Fridays (also happened).

I have also noticed that students who are doing well in class are performing all of the recommended practices that are sent home for the students to work on with their parents. I know your time is valuable, so these practices should only take 15 minutes, per night. I informed you about them at the beginning of the year, and reminded you about them the last time you reached out to me, before you checked Student out of school for nearly a month.

We will continue to work with Student to get him caught up to the other children."

Apparently the mom had been particularly hard on the teacher that had her son the year before (who was relatively new), so he was assigned into my mom's class for that reason. Never really followed up with it, and she never complained about her to me again, but my parents are all about work/home separation. She prefers to be Grandma instead of Mrs. Teacher whenever we're around her.