In my district, the whole Class of 1984 was kind of like that. We'd fallen into a time-warp where we were taught phonics and grammar, so we could read and think. Also math facts.
We got away with some stuff in high school because we were getting the test scores that made the administration look good. Nothing major ... stuff like eating our lunch outside when it was against the rules ... oh, wild kids!
My parents would never have put up with any behavior that showed up on your record.
On the grade scales of A to F I routinely got A’s in the history classes. On the conduct scales of 1 to 5 Mr. K gave me 1’s.
By the time I got to AP US History in 1975-6, I had matured a bit. And I liked Mr. Taylor; he had been a college professor and was teaching High School history, but at a college level. I got a 5 on my US History AP exam.
I remember when we had a class discussion in US History at the close of the unit on the Depression. Mr. Taylor asked “Everyone had money and was prosperous in the 1920’s, and then by 1933, everyone was broke. Where did the money go?” It was meant to trigger the discussion for the rest of the class. After a moment of reflection, I simply said: “The money was never there; it was all speculation and debt.” There total silence, including Mr. Taylor. His planned 50 minute discussion had lasted less than a minute.