My friend Don,
Superintendents are hardly infalible. In fact, they are wrong quite often. You just happen to be an exception to the rule. :-> (suppose to be a grin emoticom here).
Some "subject experts", particularly those who resort to bullying others with so-called "facts", often make mistakes in the application of their heavily-worn knowledge to a multi-variate world. Unfortunately, when heavily-invested "view-of-the-world" beliefs- and that's all these are- are challenged, out come the insults and invectives. Afterall, both sides can't own the "facts", so, the thinking process goes something like thies "given that I am intelligent, knowledgeable, and 'good', others who differ with me must be 'dumb', 'ignorant', 'stupid', and perhaps not so well motivated".
One of the sorrows of being a parent is watching your child suffer the consequences of mistakes that you could so clearly see coming down the pike, but were unable to disuade them from committing. You just pray that they can cope with the outcomes, and perhaps learn from them. The solace in the aftermath when they come to you and say, "you were right, Dad, I wish I'd had listened to you" hardly offsets the pain of seeing them fail in the first place. But at least you can see it is a positive sign that the cock-shuredness of "youthful exuberance" is being tempered somewhat by experience, maturity, and broader-scope rationality.
Yes, the climate is changing. Like with all natural things, change is the rule. And as is reflected in this thread and several others lately, it has been a difficult weather week in many places. We have several inches of snow on top of ice in North Texas. As "dumb" and "stupid" as this might be, I would welcome a return to some of that global warming.