What a great idea for a thread Mike!
A lot of us are from a generation where our teachers were WW2 vintage. In my case we had several ex-RAAF types who would even regale us with stories. One of our teachers was the school chaplain who was a Catalina pilot. I caught up with him many years later at a school reunion - he was almost deaf as a result of flying - he told me of a chant he learned doing funeral detail on his second day of flight training at Temora in 1943. This is what they said as they marched the coffin into the graveyard:
"I saw him crash, I watched him burn; he held off bank in a gliding turn"
There was one exceptional army man in the form of Henry Byron-Moore who was in the mould of Alex's teacher - he taught biology and commanded terrible respect from we students although we also enjoyed him immensely.
The biology classroom was on an upper level reached by a steel staircase. Once class had started you could hear latecomers walking up the stairs. Henry would wait behind the door and with a bellow "You're LATE, Matey" ringing in his ear the surprised boy would find himself propelled into the room by his hair.
Like you said, this wouldn't happen today, more's the pity. It certainly taught there were consequences to be considered by one's actions.