By the time they get to 4th or 5th grade, children should slowly start building skills to interact with adults who may not be all sweet and loving without being stressed out. So I'm not 100% against tough love.
That being said, if I had a choice as in if I'm paying for someone to be DD's teacher, I'd avoid someone like Mr. K and find someone else who knows how to teach without resorting to humiliation and intimidation.
DD loves her ballet school but I'm taking her out and putting her into a different one. Her old school is THE ballet school in our state and has produced many stars but aside from the fact that I don't see that in her future (ballet is not her area of talent), the director of the school who teaches older students is exactly like Mr. K and I don't believe in that teaching style, not enough to pay for it anyway.
DD's new school's director is one of those 100% positive energy people but she is strict, firm, and demanding too and she takes her students to the next level not through fear but through respect. The atmosphere of her class is calm, serene, and supportive. To me, it's a lot more important that DD is in a nurturing environment than learning as fast as she could because she is walking on egg shells.
