I had a similar professor when I went to school. If you were late by even one minute, you got a zero. Didn’t turn in your work on time, you got a zero. Failed a quiz/test, you got a zero. Three zeroes and you failed the class. No questions. Oh, and you weren’t welcome to continue with his class once you got to three for that semester.
As a freshman (undecided at the time), I heard this speech on the first day of his class in my first semester. I decided to “avoid” him and quickly switched to another class that semester. All those rules would certainly get in the way of my social commitments.
As time went by and I chose my major you couldn’t get past “Go” to collect your $200 without going through his courses. So I bucked up and played by his rules. It was one of the best decisions of my life. He was a total SOB but in the “Paper Chase” kinda way. At the end of school he was an advisor and somewhat of a friend.
That went down 27 years ago. To this day I play by those rules in my day to day. The bottom line is that his rules helped reinforce the concepts of commitment, time management, hard work and respect for others and their time. I like to think I’m a better person for it.
Red Cell, not everyone conforms....the Marine Corps made you conform and then asked you to adapt and overcome........your teacher was a academic asshole who made you bend to his will....just because you learned something from it didn’t make it right.