Father Bear

This afternoon I spoke with my wife regarding her first parent-teacher conference for our oldest.  We are lucky to have a teacher who takes such a personal interest in all of her kids.  She praised very specific attributes about him and demonstrated a great deal of love for him.  I sincerely appreciated that.  My wife then asked her advice about schools when we move on, knowing that our son is not the center-of-attention type.  She responded that we need to be his biggest advocates because many teachers overlook the diligent and quiet kids at this age for the rowdier kids or the kids who struggle more.  When I heard that, a strange sensation came over me and for a moment I viewed all teachers (except for my son's teacher) as mortal enemies.  As a father, aren't I supposed to be the rational one?  I didn't think I would ever feel the "mother bear" instinct, especially over something so benign.  I scared myself a little bit.