I taught an introductory computing course for incoming freshman while I was at university. I once had a student's mother call the department head to complain a

I taught an introductory computing course for incoming freshman while I was at university. I once had a student's mother call the department head to complain about her child's grades and the "needless difficulty" of the class. Fortunately, my boss was[1] fantastic and told that parent to piss off, not-quite-politely explaining that her son is now a grown-ass man, and that if he weren't doing well in the course then it was his own damn fault, and that it's pretty pathetic that as an adult, he was still having his mother fight his battles for him, and furthermore pathetic that his mother was complicit in such. She also put a few kind words toward my abilities as a teacher, which had me feeling pretty chuffed ;) Seriously, that class was quite likely the single easiest course required by the college of engineering, and anyone who failed it was either too lazy to do the work or they simply didn't have what it takes to be an engineer (either way, most of the failures wound up dropping out of the college of engineering within a year or two; a few came back ready to take it more seriously in round two; one of my students took my class three times, and he failed every time, finally dropping out of engineering after three semesters). All in all, it was pretty sad. [1]: She's still fantastic, though she's no longer my boss :)