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I found the same thing. We had a pushover teacher and the kids hated him. When I was teaching the Intro to Econ course, there were 3 different instructors. Their average grades were just under a full grade point higher than mine. The students gave me the nickname “Killer Jack” because I was a tough instructor. However, the word was to take me for Intro if you were going to be a business major and I won the Outstanding Teacher Award one year, which is sponsored by the Student Government and carries a $5000 award...it was nice to win. I think it goes to show that most kids want to learn and respond to solid instruction with hard work.

I had the same reputation. It was a required course, and students soon learned to take it from me. I would get emails from students, begging to get in, saying that they had friends that told them to take the class from me. In the years since, I’ve had a number of students contact me and tell me what an impact I’ve made on their lives. Some of them are teaching, some have gone on to other paths. I’ll tell you, nothing is more humbling and edifying than to have somebody tell you, “you changed my life.”