Addendum: it seems a common experience that while parents are simply trying to talk about the child, teachers hear "bored" as a direct accusation of incompetence.
Not surprising, as student engagement is a common standard on teacher evaluation rubrics. They've been trained to hear student boredom as an evaluative comment on their professional competence.
Now that I think about it, it might not be a bad idea to look up the teacher evaluation standards in one's community, make a note of key buzzwords and criteria for master teachers, and tailor one's language to communicate most effectively and positively with teachers in a way that avoids triggering defensiveness and fear, and validates to whatever extent the strengths to which they may aspire.
