One of the best teachers I had was a marine, who after leaving the service went into teaching. He was respectful but seen as an authority figure. He expected us to learn and we did. You felt good when you went to class. You tried hard to understand and learn the material. And you felt proud when you aced his tests.
My fifth & sixth grade teacher was a Marine and the principal as well. This was a small rural school. We saw him a few minutes in the morning for calling roll and giving assignments. We saw him again at lunch. We saw him after lunch when he sent us outside. His tenure as our teacher was sitting in his office chain smoking his Kent 100's either myself or another student was sent across the hiway to the store every morning to buy for him. Fith and sixth was grade was wasted time. Ah the 60's LOL.
The English teacher though honestly did right by us. School is about learning subjects as well as about life or should be. High School English for those not bound for college can be better used in most cases. I wish mandatory English would only be two years in high school. No one in that class was going to college. They had advanced classes for that.