answer:My son is out of school now; but yes, I was always disappointed in the vast majority of the teachers at my son’s schools. It seems that teaching has become a fall-back option for those who can’t find another vocation: “I know… I like kids. I’ll be a teacher! They get paid quite well, and have the summers off!” My son didn’t attend Kindergarten, as it would have been too much change in the midst of his father and I divorcing. So the following year he went to first grade, and very early on, I took a red pen to a photocopied note that had been sent home from school. But I never sent it in because of the implications it would have had on how my son was treated by the teacher and other school staff. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to be a teacher myself. When my son would misbehave in school and the teachers called, I would hear such trepidation in their voices followed by a sigh of relief when I told them that I respect their need to maintain order in the classroom and that if my son was disruptive, then they were right to punish him. You couldn’t pay me enough to deal with all these over-indulged brats or neglected punks and their dysfunctional parents. (Yes, that is grossly over-generalized, but having witnessed the suburban public school masses over the past 15 years, it’s sadly more accurate than it should be) I had a nice little Prep School nearby that I couldn’t have afforded as a single mom. In NYC, don’t you have charter school options? My son and his wife, despite being non-religious, chose a catholic school for their daughter’s elementary education. She’s now in public junior high and doing well. It just seems that of anywhere in the world, you’d find the greatest range of educational options in NYC – not to mention a great environment for home-schooling, since you have all those museums and libraries and cultural institutions close by.