He sounds a lot like my social studies teacher in high school. He was the best teacher I ever had because he was a complete, utter bastard. He didn't care if you had the right answer, you had to back it up with facts. He gave us 5 page papers to do every night and a 10 page research paper every semester. Both of those things were crucial to my development of critical thought and being able to communicate it, something nobody else bothered to teach, even in college.

He was fired a few years after I graduated. Which wasn't surprising - he constantly pissed off the school board and other teachers. Dryden sounds a lot more politic than my teacher was.