One really competent teacher that I remember MADE us learn the skills so we would have the skills to do a really practical job in our lives. (My typing and shorthand teacher; granted shorthand became obsolete within about five or six years of graduating - but was still useful for jobs within that time frame. After that, it made things easier taking long phone messages. The typing has remained very useful.)
She recognized that some of us thought we were going to skate by on our looks and charm. Ha! - I feel sorry for the football players who thought they were going to be professional football players all their lives; or the cheerleaders who thought they’d make a career out of cheerleading (that was before there even were professional cheerleaders much).
My favorite teacher was a Marist Brother and refuge from Cuba, who took his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Sorbonne and arrived in this country around 1962, with a death sentence from Castro hanging over him and not speaking a word of English. He picked up enough English fast enough to teach Chemistry by the time I had him. He was the most demanding teacher and one of the most popular, at least among motivated students.
Second favorite was a whitebread Ben Stein lookalike history teacher who at least knew his subject and engaged the students. He was also not bat guano crazy, like most HS teachers.