I'm pretty sure any teacher that ever does what JK Simmons' character did (the insults, the slapping, the yelling, etc) would be fired immediately. But he does remind me of an old high school art teacher I had - a woman who was strict as hell, no one liked her, and she always went out of the way to lay on every criticism in the book of her student's artwork.
shareI had a sc^mbag primary school teacher who shared a level of sadism with Fletcher. Fletcher, however, is presented as brilliant, successful, and well-respected at what he does, with a true passion about music and discovering real talent. He does have some redeeming qualities, that is, despite being a psycho. Also, you hear this kind of stories in highly competitive/perfectionist environments, I think his character may be extreme but is not unrealistic (he is based on a real person anyway, the writer's music teacher in high school).
My teacher, on the other hand, was completely incompetent and used his sadism (insults, beatings, humiliating punishments) just to vent off his obvious hatred for his job. I think he got fired the year after he taught us and years later one of my classmates who became a lawyer encountered him in the courtroom being convicted for major fraud.
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I had a guidance counselor like this. Yes of all people. In third grade she had asked us to draw a picture of ourselves. I wasn't very good at drawing and was already self-conscience about that assignment anyway. When she walked by my desk and saw my picture she picked it up, showed it to the entire class and told them it was a terrible picture and that they should start over if their pictures looked like this. I couldn't stand the woman for the rest of elementary school. I had another teacher yell at me in the school cafeteria because I took the ham off a school-issued sandwich.
Now that my kids are in school I raise hell whenever a teacher humiliates them. If it's a fellow student I tell them they have to work those issues out themselves, but I will not let a teacher belittle my kids over things that are none of his/her business. Last school year a guest teacher called my son a liar during a confidence boosting exercise. She assumed (because most of the kids looked "white") that none of them knew a foreign language. When my son spoke up and told her that he spoke another language she told the class he was lying. When the other kids spoke up and said "no, he does know another language." She said "No, he's been lying to you all if he says his parent(s) were born in another country." My husband (born in Morocco, now an American citizen) went up to the school to have a talk with the teacher who invited that lady to speak. The teacher thankfully overheard everything she said and apologized for her behavior. Later that day the guest speaker stopped by and apologized to my son.
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There was a philosophy teacher at my university like that - always belittling certain students. Surprised he goes on year after year - considering that we now have "safe zones".
But there's no point in being like that, honestly. The bottom line is that weak students are not changed by his chastisement. It's not like the military. I mean, come on, you see him for one hour a few times a week?
I was a really shy, timid kid and always hated having to stand up in front of the class to do any sort of presentation. Every school year I ended up having to do this maybe once or twice, but my grade 3 teacher was the absolute worst for this making us do it all the time. One time was even a DANCE presentation. Like as if I wasn't humiliated enough! He was also incredibly strict when it came to everything else. Even the principle and other teachers would always comment on how much of a perfect, straight line his class walked in when going to the gym or other activities.
At the end of the day, this didn't help any of us. We just hated him and it made our entire day feel like we were slaves. The next year I had an awesome teacher that never gave us any homework on weekends, just because he was awesome. Grade 4 was a fantastic fucking year compared to the god-awfulness that was Grade 3.