He earned the respect of myself and I think every student in the school.
Certainly, every student in my class held him in very high regard.
The classes became a competition to see who could get the highest grade.
There were good reasons to get high marks in military school, i.e. more privileges, promotions, awards, etc.
But, in his class, all we wanted was a single word of praise.
For some reason getting a good word from Captain X felt better than all the top grades in the world.
It was a habit in the class to write up our graded homework papers and throw them in the trash can while still sitting in our seats.