They were indeed. I suppose they still are, except that they're retired now. After we got grown and up into school, my mom went back and finished another doctorate in Spanish and taught that until retirement instead of English.

It was great, I suppose. But I think spawning articulate children was somewhat of a curse for them because I was such a handful as a kid. I was a sharp-tongued little cuss. They must have wondered what they'd wrought.

The only drawback was when asking for help on English or history homework. They'd give WAY more information than anyone could ever want. We learned early on to find the answers ourselves unless we wanted to hear an expanded discussion of grammar, history or literature. As a kid, that sort of thing was simply intolerable. "Just give me the answer, Dad!" was a standard plea.