School teachers and corporal punishments

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Cellarite

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A few posts have appeared in a thread upstairs where people are discussing the antics their teachers used to get up to as punishments.

I'm intrigued. I joined high school just as corporal punishment was finished but we had a history teacher who would make you put your fingers on the edge of an open desk and then slam it shut. He didn't make you keep your hands there but you had to be bloody quick to get them out.

Anyone got any horror stories?
 
Went to a comprehensive in Wythenshawe through the 70’s and suffer the ruler and the strap and one sadistic fucker who had a size 12 black plimsoll that he’d chalk an X on before whacking you on the arse with it. A few teachers also liked to throw the blackboard eraser around too…
 
Most of the teachers I met were decent human beings but interspersed with them were the sadistic cunts who liked hitting children, just like today the really badly behaved thugs got away with it and the good kids get the full force off these wrong 'uns.

Even though most teachers are decent human beings we can't allow corners for the nonces who hurt kids to legally hide.

I was what you would call a functioning swot but even I got strapped once, my Mam made sure it never happened again.
 
Had one in primary school who would whack you in the palm of your hand with a wooden ruler if you fucked around. He was also quite handy with the chalk duster and if that hit you, you knew about it.

Another one, female this one, would make you stand at the front of the class with you hands held up to the point you would be in tears at how much it ached.

Senior school not so much. I think by then you’d been violently programmed to behave as best you could.

Happy days, and to an extent is what is missing now.
 
I went to a prep school and was slippered ( 6x ) on average twice a week. I've regularly taken direct hits from a board rubber from about 20 ft away, fair play to the guys accuracy but Mr Clancys party piece was taking me, or another victim/pupil by the hair at the side of my ear, lifting me up, pushing my nose against the blackboard, drawing a circle where my nose was and making me stand on tip toes with said nose within the circle. He was also quite good at 3 paces with an architects ruler......Happy days....kids today dont know they're born.
 
Tuearts right boot said:
I went to a prep school and was slippered ( 6x ) on average twice a week. I've regularly taken direct hits from a board rubber from about 20 ft away, fair play to the guys accuracy but Mr Clancys party piece was taking me, or another victim/pupil by the hair at the side of my ear, lifting me up, pushing my nose against the blackboard, drawing a circle where my nose was and making me stand on tip toes with said nose within the circle. He was also quite good at 3 paces with an architects ruler......Happy days....kids today dont know they're born.
Click to expand...
The same Irish history teacher I mentioned in my OP used to do that same hair trick but just to stand you up.
 
Looking back now it's hard to believe such ever existed or was allowed but it sure did and some teachers definitely had a field day. Back then those in profession's such as teachers, doctors, members of parliament, the police and similar were held in high esteem by the working classes and as such were rarely questioned or challenged. This is why a lot of abuse happened unchecked, especially in homes.

Going back to the subject matter. I remember in primary school at St Mary's in Hulme the teachers who I seemed to remember were always women, would pull any misbehaving pupils over their lap and administer a hard hand spanking in front of the whole class. More serious sanctions were dealt with by the headmaster in his office. I left there when I was eight to move to Wythenshawe.
No spanking there but we did have the strap though I only remember that being used a couple of times and that happened in the corridor or headmasters office not in front of the class. We did have one relief French teacher, a young woman who had some strange punishments which these days would definitely result in her being sacked. Pupils deemed to have misbehaved had to kneel on the floor facing the wall with their hands on their heads. She improvised this from time to time by making them kneel in this position with their head over the rubbish bin. Most odd.

Secondary school it was the strap on the hands, normally one stroke on each palm. It was excruciatingly painful and teachers often had their own strap, although one was kept in the secretary's office along with the punishment book where your punishment was logged. This was used quite freely and often for ridiculous reasons. Looking back it was obvious certain teachers loved to use it. One example was a teacher left the classroom for a good twenty minutes and ordered no talking while she was gone. It was a class of thirteen year olds so you could imagine it didn't take long for us to crack and start fooling around. She came back and ordered everybody who admitted to talking to line up and strapped us all. She definitely engineered that situation.
Like others have mentioned a couple of teachers used a plimsoll or slipper but these were rare. I think this probably went against official guidelines but we never questioned it, how could we?

I wouldn't want to see a return to those times but like everything these days the pendulum has probably swung too far the other way regarding discipline. Did it help to keep.order? I'd say on the whole yes. While it didn't seem to faze the badly behaved pupils the rest were kept in.line for fear of the consequences if they didn't. Ruling by fear? Yes, but it worked.
 
Went to Ashton Grammar in the mid seventies , on the whole most of them were decent.
I found it was the older teachers who were more sadistic.
Thinking back the sports teacher seemed to enjoy taking a plimsoll to your arse if you forgot your kit.
On one occasion I’d not done my geography homework (again) I’d barely got out my explanation when I received a thunderous right hook to the ear, fuck me it hurt , the classroom stayed silent all lesson .
Years later I was doing some work there when who walked passed but said teacher . Remember me I said , he looked quizzically then said my name . Remember the clout you gave me for not doing my homework , he grinned nervously.
I bet you couldn’t do it now hey .
He turned and walked away , wanker .
 
My mother and her siblings were taught by nuns at a Salford school in the mid to late 50s. One nun in particular was known for being over keen (to say the least!) with physically punishing the children.
One afternoon one of the mothers had enough after her daughter was caned badly on her hands. She waited until the nun came out of the school one afternoon with some of the children (my aunt included) on their way to a Mass.
"Sister" she called, and gestured to the nun, "could I have a quick word?"

At which point the mother took the nun's cane off her and beat her with it. She then got hold of the nun with her bare hands and smacked her a fair few times. Somebody eventually got her off the nun.

Police were called and my aunt says it was the most exciting school event ever and none of the kids wanted to go home ;-)
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Was just about to search for this and post it.
Remember showing the film to my girls when they were around 14 and 12 so would have been around 2006.
They refused to believe it was real and said it was just made up for the film
Click to expand...

Looking back now it's hard to believe it was ever allowed to happen and we lived through it. Grown adults hitting kids, often as hard as they could on the palms of the hands, with a thick leather strap split into three tails at the end, barbaric. I actually think corporal punishment in prisons was banned before it was in schools. Let that one sink in....
 
mackenzie said:
My mother and her siblings were taught by nuns at a Salford school in the mid to late 50s. One nun in particular was known for being over keen (to say the least!) with physically punishing the children.
One afternoon one of the mothers had enough after her daughter was caned badly on her hands. She waited until the nun came out of the school one afternoon with some of the children (my aunt included) on their way to a Mass.
"Sister" she called, and gestured to the nun, "could I have a quick word?"

At which point the mother took the nun's cane off her and beat her with it. She then got hold of the nun with her bare hands and smacked her a fair few times. Somebody eventually got her off the nun.

Police were called and my aunt says it was the most exciting school event ever and none of the kids wanted to go home ;-)
Click to expand...
Bloody hell!

One of the dinner ladies at my primary school force fed me on at least two separate occasions. Spaghetti Bolognese one time and dumplings the other. Actually held me head and forced the fork into my mouth. She lived round the corner from us. When my Nanna heard about it, she marched me round, knocked on the door and when Mrs Power answered, the best Nanna in the world hit her with her umbrella!
 
Cellarite said:
Bloody hell!

One of the dinner ladies at my primary school force fed me on at least two separate occasions. Spaghetti Bolognese one time and dumplings the other. Actually held me head and forced the fork into my mouth. She lived round the corner from us. When my Nanna heard about it, she marched me round, knocked on the door and when Mrs Power answered, the best Nanna in the world hit her with her umbrella!
Click to expand...

Hahaha!! Nice one ;-)
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Was just about to search for this and post it.
Remember showing the film to my girls when they were around 14 and 12 so would have been around 2006.
They refused to believe it was real and said it was just made up for the film
Click to expand...
"Until someone produces a better solution, I'll continue to use this cane, knowing fully well that you'll be back for it time and time and time again."

How effective is the deterrent if you're having to use it repeatedly?
 
Hyde Grammar in the late 70's early 80's a proper unit of a religious studies teacher (obviously) had a favourite punishment of making you bang your own head on the desk, if he wasn't satisfied you had done it hard enough, he "helped" second time around.

Also had a slightly insane metalwork teacher who, as a variation of throwing the blackboard rubber would just sling whatever was to hand, including calipers, which in metalwork have two pointed legs.

How no one was seriously hurt with that mad twat I'll never know
 
I started school in 1998, so more than a decade after corporal punishment, but the dregs of the old world were still around. In my primary school especially, there were teachers who fucking resented children. By the time I was in high school in the late 2000s, though, things were much better. Heck I'd even say by the end of my GCSEs that I was matey with most of them. I've got a few of them down as friends on Facebook. Looking back, 2002 felt like the big turning point, when CRB checks came in and the dickheads who tried to get away with their own secret brands of corporal punishment in the 90s were filtered out.

The worst teacher I ever had was in my fourth year of primary school. Let's call him Mr Smith. A miserable elderly bloke who had very little time for children and even less time for me. I was a smart kid at school. I was in top sets for basically everything and I wanted to learn. Some days I'd want to chat more than I wanted to listen, but I was dedicated to my school work and I got great results on all my SATs in the end. I passed all 11 GCSEs, I went to uni with good A-levels, and eventually I got a masters. If you'd asked Mr Smith about me when I was eight years old he'd have painted a very different picture, such was his resentment for me. I can't even specifically remember what I did wrong, what with me being eight fucking years old at the time.

I know every kid says certain teachers hate them, but fucking hell, Mr Smith had it in for me like no teacher I've ever known. Even my mum and dad backed me up after one parents evening with him. They came away convinced he was talking about a different child. According to him, I was constantly disruptive, arrogant, and badly behaved. It was the only bad report I ever received from a parents evening. I thought my mum and dad were gonna bollock me and I went back to the car in tears, but without me saying a word in defence my mum just sat down in the passenger seat, turned round to me, and said "I don't believe him, there's no way he's just described my son".

I still remember the afternoon when Mr Smith found a way to hit me. It was one of those moments in your life that's so shocking it just imprints on you. I remember in my first years of infant school that some of the teachers would smack your arm if you were misbehaving, but they were gentle with it and you knew it was for your own good. The Mr Smith incident stills burns in my head a bit today, to be honest. We were going outside onto the playground for something - I forget what. He opened the door to the classroom and had 30 of us all line up single file round the edges of the room in an orderly queue so we could leave one by one.

He was holding the door against the wall by standing against it in the doorway.

We were all walking out of the room, one by one, in a constant chain/queue. My surname starts with W so I was about fourth from the back - he'd let about 25 kids walk out of the room before me and I was close behind the kid just ahead. But when it came to my turn, I was inches from the doorway when Mr Smith's right arm suddenly jutted out to block my path. He connected with the side of my head and shouted "Stop!" The shock knocked me to my knees. He'd fully clotheslined me and I sort of lost the ability to speak. I'd been smacked on the arm by teachers before, but I hadn't ever been walloped out of nowhere like this, and seemingly for no reason. As I was getting up off the floor I noticed his right hand was now pressing up against the doorframe, like he'd formed a barrier in front of me. He started shouting at me for walking too quickly and "messing about". I just kept my head down and said nothing for the rest of the day.

Something did change in me that day. I was a pretty happy kid but for the next few months I hated school for the first time. I just waited quietly for the year to end so that I wouldn't have to speak to him or see him ever again. Thankfully in fifth year we had a lovely young woman teaching us called Ms Johnston who I've honestly never forgotten because of how lovely she was (and, I later found out, she's married to a forum member who knows who they are). My personality definitely came back. Sadly in sixth year I had another teacher who I didn't get on with, Ms Scothern, but she never struck me or anything like that. Looking back, it was just a case of us not vibing and that's fine. She still knew I was clever, gave me positive reports at parents evenings, and she made sure I passed all my SATs, and even recommended me for the 11 Plus alongside some other kids (I didn't take it because I didn't want to go to a grammar school).

But I didn't even tell my parents about Mr Smith hitting me. Actually, I don't think I've ever told anyone about it until now. Weird.
 
As much as the physical punishments were bad, it was often the psychological ones for the less able in the class looking back that were the most cruel.

I avoided it as I was reasonably bright (based upon the norms of the time), but some kids who Im sure these days would be in receipt of a SEN were called idiots, made to deliberately look stupid by teachers and generally pilloried for just not understanding a subject area in full view of their peers, who on occasion were also invited to join in.

It wasn't every teacher but there were a number spread across the subject areas.

Are we a bit too soft now ? Probably with respect to unacceptable behaviour; but at least we identify those who might need additional help due to conditions beyond their own control. How many kids in to 70s and 80s who struggled with Maths had dyscalculia or English had dyslexia or even PE had dyspraxia and due to a minority of teachers hated going to school which then went on to affect them in later life, its really quite sad.

As research into the conditions has discovered people who suffer from these conditions often have strengths in other areas which are often not valued in a traditional education sense. Thankfully some employers now actively encourage application from neurodiverse people as they see the real benefit in certain roles.
 
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youngbob said:
I started school in 1998, so more than a decade after corporal punishment, but the dregs of the old world were still around. In my primary school especially, there were teachers who fucking resented children. By the time I was in high school in the late 2000s, though, things were much better. Heck I'd even say by the end of my GCSEs that I was matey with most of them. I've got a few of them down as friends on Facebook. Looking back, 2002 felt like the big turning point, when CRB checks came in and the dickheads who tried to get away with their own secret brands of corporal punishment in the 90s were filtered out.

The worst teacher I ever had was in my fourth year of primary school. Let's call him Mr Smith. A miserable elderly bloke who had very little time for children and even less time for me. I was a smart kid at school. I was in top sets for basically everything and I wanted to learn. Some days I'd want to chat more than I wanted to listen, but I was dedicated to my school work and I got great results on all my SATs in the end. I passed all 11 GCSEs, I went to uni with good A-levels, and eventually I got a masters. If you'd asked Mr Smith about me when I was eight years old he'd have painted a very different picture, such was his resentment for me. I can't even specifically remember what I did wrong, what with me being eight fucking years old at the time.

I know every kid says certain teachers hate them, but fucking hell, Mr Smith had it in for me like no teacher I've ever known. Even my mum and dad backed me up after one parents evening with him. They came away convinced he was talking about a different child. According to him, I was constantly disruptive, arrogant, and badly behaved. It was the only bad report I ever received from a parents evening. I thought my mum and dad were gonna bollock me and I went back to the car in tears, but without me saying a word in defence my mum just sat down in the passenger seat, turned round to me, and said "I don't believe him, there's no way he's just described my son".

I still remember the afternoon when Mr Smith found a way to hit me. It was one of those moments in your life that's so shocking it just imprints on you. I remember in my first years of infant school that some of the teachers would smack your arm if you were misbehaving, but they were gentle with it and you knew it was for your own good. The Mr Smith incident stills burns in my head a bit today, to be honest. We were going outside onto the playground for something - I forget what. He opened the door to the classroom and had 30 of us all line up single file round the edges of the room in an orderly queue so we could leave one by one.

He was holding the door against the wall by standing against it in the doorway.

We were all walking out of the room, one by one, in a constant chain/queue. My surname starts with W so I was about fourth from the back - he'd let about 25 kids walk out of the room before me and I was close behind the kid just ahead. But when it came to my turn, I was inches from the doorway when Mr Smith's right arm suddenly jutted out to block my path. He connected with the side of my head and shouted "Stop!" The shock knocked me to my knees. He'd fully clotheslined me and I sort of lost the ability to speak. I'd been smacked on the arm by teachers before, but I hadn't ever been walloped out of nowhere like this, and seemingly for no reason. As I was getting up off the floor I noticed his right hand was now pressing up against the doorframe, like he'd formed a barrier in front of me. He started shouting at me for walking too quickly and "messing about". I just kept my head down and said nothing for the rest of the day.

Something did change in me that day. I was a pretty happy kid but for the next few months I hated school for the first time. I just waited quietly for the year to end so that I wouldn't have to speak to him or see him ever again. Thankfully in fifth year we had a lovely young woman teaching us called Ms Johnston who I've honestly never forgotten because of how lovely she was (and, I later found out, she's married to a forum member who knows who they are). My personality definitely came back. Sadly in sixth year I had another teacher who I didn't get on with, Ms Scothern, but she never struck me or anything like that. Looking back, it was just a case of us not vibing and that's fine. She still knew I was clever, gave me positive reports at parents evenings, and she made sure I passed all my SATs, and even recommended me for the 11 Plus alongside some other kids (I didn't take it because I didn't want to go to a grammar school).

But I didn't even tell my parents about Mr Smith hitting me. Actually, I don't think I've ever told anyone about it until now. Weird.
Click to expand...
Shocking. It was always hard to tell your parents that a teacher didn't like you because, like you say, every kid must say it. I remember having that feeling about the odd one or two though. I remember a trial for the school team and the physics teacher (who I felt didn't like me because I didn't enjoy his lessons) was running the school team. He asked me my position, I said forward. We went out and had a match, I think my team won 3-1 and I scored all three. All the lads were congratulating me and saying I was definitely in. He announced the squad back in the changing rooms and I wasn't in it. A lad asked why I wasn't named. He turned to me and said "I know you scored a hat-trick but I didn't feel like you worked hard enough." Wanker.
 
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