APAD: teacher's pet

Definition: a student who is favored by the teacher

 

Examples

   1) Don't be such a teacher's pet. You're not going to get any extra credit

      for it.

   2) I'm not surprised that he got an A. He's the teacher's pet.

 

Etymology

   The term is believed to have originated in the United States in the late 19th

   or early 20th century.

 

Synonyms: Brown-noser, suck-up

 

- englishdaily626.com [edited]

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I guess you can call some of us teacher's pets back in the 80s.

 

By Chinese tradition, teachers were likened to fathers. Regarded as pillars

of the society, they were held in such esteem that it was hard for pupils not to

try to imitate and appeal to them. In a sense, we students were all sucking up,

some better at it than others. Teachers had favorite students, usually those

working hard and doing well in their studies, but showing favoritism was not cool.

 

It was a different world where the English phrase's negative sense hardly apply.

I can honestly say that mine were mostly fair but most non-PE teachers liked me,

i.e., I was a teacher's pet.