Your post brings me back to May of 1970, two things left out were how the room temps were lowered to keep
the class awake and how to properly use a chipping hammer to remove paint! I love the detail of your comments can't argue with the accuracy.

How to motivate: I walked out of the instructors lounge one day and heard CPO Dan Solberg giving a very fine motivational speach to one of his students. There were several instructors at the door listening.
Filled with "if you study harder, you will do better", "help is available at night school". You know the drill. At the very end Dan told the young man "and if you don't pass the test tomorrow, I'm going to drag you back in here and drive you through the floor like a nail".
We all split in every direction trying not to laugh. The young man passed his next test.