"It's a great time to be a teacher"

For those of us that have a rather bleak outlook on the state of education today (those of us who don't have jobs, who are forced to retire, etc.).  After all of the negative, it is a good time to be in education.  I was having a discussion with an administrator and once-teacher that has been in education for a long time.  She said to me, "Bad economy aside, it is a remarkable time to be a teacher..."  From manipulatives to mandatory reporting, she described the ways that education has slowly improved since she first became a teacher.  While she agreed that education is a pendulum that swings from one extreme to the other in many instances, she believes that with every swing the pendulum edges toward the side of improvement (maybe with the occasional edge back, i.e. NCLB).