School Punishment

[George 1978]

Backside

Which is worse, though? People think of backisdes as being more taboo than hands.

[Moonraker]

Was that on your hand or backside?

Backside

[George 1978]

I doubt the teachers would get away with it now.

You are correct - the teaching staff would not get away with it now, but it is a case of closing the stable door when it comes to what had happened in the past. I am certain that in recent years there have been former pupils who have taken their former LEA to court, sometimes taking direct action against existing schools in an "un-Friends Reunited" sort-of-way, including former staff who are still with us and getting their eventual comeuppance because of what they had to endure back in the day; never mind taking it to the Board of Governors. And one wonders why youngsters hate going to school?

You know how daytime TV is peppered with insurance claims adverts? Perhaps if they did the same for former school pupils who had to endure assault and the like, be it from staff or pupils, and one could claim compensation, then I would be all for it.

March 2024 marks 30 years since I left the "Madhouse" and my life has been altered so much by the impact and influence of the educational system in the past. One might bump up the "25 Years Since Leaving School" thread which I had started on here five years ago...

[Richard1978]

Now my skool life was pure hell as i was a good pupil but never in trouble but yet i can remember occassions where 3 teachers wanted to cane me in secondary skool because they believed the bullies lies
this happened in around 91 or 92.

But yet they never got caned for some of he truly apaalling things they did to me and others..

But i do remember seeing pupils get theruler over the knuckles forsimply talking when they werent meant to and talking low.

But i feel skool punishments were more brutal back then.

I doubt the teachers would get away with it now.


Altho my bro has been a teacher for 30yrs.

Even without physical punishment some teachers at my secondary school could get away with things that they couldn't anywhere else!

[darren]

Now my skool life was pure hell as i was a good pupil but never in trouble but yet i can remember occassions where 3 teachers wanted to cane me in secondary skool because they believed the bullies lies
this happened in around 91 or 92.

But yet they never got caned for some of he truly apaalling things they did to me and others..

But i do remember seeing pupils get theruler over the knuckles forsimply talking when they werent meant to and talking low.

But i feel skool punishments were more brutal back then.

I doubt the teachers would get away with it now.


Altho my bro has been a teacher for 30yrs.

[George 1978]

After reading the post above, (and I have mentioned this before on here): I have to say that I am not surprised that former Headteachers from the 1970s and 1980s often make the news as a result of being accused of historic child abuse, and most are brought to justice in the courts, and to see what adult detention is like. I feel for what you had to put up with back then; and no doubt that child who would twist another's ear would no doubt be suspended for assault, and it would certainly be classified as bullying, yet, 50 years ago or thereabouts (which I assume was the era that you were referring to), the Head seemed to do this as a punishment. Any shoe shop assistant will tell you that slippers or sandals are for wearing on one's feet and not for the use as a lethal weapon to physically assault someone with. The NSPCC should have focused their campaigns a lot more on schools back then for a start.

It just shows you how far we have travelled: I had read the letters page of a local newspaper from 1972 from the BNA, and it had published a letter from a rather Victorian-style mother, saying that it is OK to "spank" their child when they misbehave; something which sounds ancient and unsettling from a 2020s perspective. The year 1972 was closer to the King Charles III era than the Queen Victoria era. Two wrongs don't make a right: how can you let a child know that assault is wrong when one does the same to them for misbehaviour? No wonder we grow up more confused than ever. Likewise, the same goes to senior members of school staff; I think that it makes it worse as they are not related to the child and they are only represented from a loco parentis perspective. The parents might have agreed with the punishment back then, but allow someone who has no relation apart from a "colleague" perspective to perform such an act is truly barbaric in hindsight. I wouldn't let a stranger do that, and it is no less painful when someone does that.

[manofkent59]

Other punishments I remember from primary school was the headmaster creeping up behind me and twisting my ears for misbehaving - which was bloody painful! I think he only did this to boys, can't remember how naughty girls were punished. His wife, a horrible woman, also taught there and she "slippered" with a heavy Scholl sandal. I once saw three boys get this in the playground - they were wearing shorts and she whacked them on the tops of the legs, ouch!

On another occasion a load of us were punished by the headmaster for making too much noise. We had to spend the afternoon break facing the fence in the playground in silence with our backs to the playground while the rest of the school looked on as they enjoyed their playtime

[manofkent59]

I did get the impression tha Detention as a punishment was pretty well established by the 1960s. I did live in a fairly small town in Pembrokeshire with many pupils attending from surrounding villages etc and who relied on school buses for transport. Possibly such a consideration made it problematic to operate such a system - though it was not seriously discussed.

I had a mixture of punishments at secondary school (1970s) - lines, detention and the slipper. As far as I recall the detention was at lunchtime which avoided the problem of missing the school bus and not getting home

[manofkent59]

Certainly the cane was around when I started secondary school in 1977. I was a good kid so never got punished. But one time I forgot to bring my swimming trunks; on a day when the deputy head decided to cane anyone who left their gear at home.
There were about 7 of us waiting outside this red door. We were in a queue. The deputy head said 'come in,' and the first kid went in. I heard one whip and a cry. I was near the end of the queue... and it was getting shorter. Boy it hurt.

Was that on your hand or backside?

[sofiya85]

One of my school teachers was very danger. She every time shouted to the student. Every student afride her, no one talk to each other during of that teacher period. sometime My friends and me also got punishment from her teacher

[George 1978]

As we are at Christmas Eve at least, I thought I would add that I could have sworn when I was at Junior School back in the 1980s, just before Christmas one year, someone had misbehaved or done something wrong, and a teacher said to them that they would have had to come to school on Christmas Day to do a detention. People have said that I must have imagined this including an Education Welfare Officer back in the early 1990s, but I am certain that I didn't.

Looking on school websites, many of them mention Saturday, Sunday and even Bank Holiday detentions (i.e. detentions on non-schooldays) where one would have to attend in full school uniform to do it, although my Junior School didn't have uniform back then, and it made me think that I am not imagining it. Ironically, weekend detentions were hardly ever mentioned back then. Mind you I have assumed that the weekend detentions were a more recent thing than going back to when I was in the system.

[George 1978]

I wouldn't touch EastEnders with a bargepole, but I do watch PCBH episodes on YouTube.

[80sChav]

Wouldn't it be funny (in a peculiar way, that is) if school detention-alike sanctions was actually used in actual law? Imagine being arrested and taken to a police station, and being told to write 200 times by the custody officer in the Interview Room: "I must not shoplift", or "I must not assault fellow human beings", or "I must pay that £200 fine". Of course it doesn't happen. In other words, the typical school detention doesn't change the world as such; it's just there as an inconvenience.

But then again, with regards to the penal system, they do call it a prison "sentence", don't they? And a "sentence" is something one writes when someone has lines in detention - just a thought.

Well funny you should say this George but EastEnders did do a Video or Dvd abouut 15 years or so back called/termed "Slaters In Detention" complete with Prisoner C Block H type fake bars on the cover!!

[George 1978]

Wouldn't it be funny (in a peculiar way, that is) if school detention-alike sanctions was actually used in actual law? Imagine being arrested and taken to a police station, and being told to write 200 times by the custody officer in the Interview Room: "I must not shoplift", or "I must not assault fellow human beings", or "I must pay that £200 fine". Of course it doesn't happen. In other words, the typical school detention doesn't change the world as such; it's just there as an inconvenience.

But then again, with regards to the penal system, they do call it a prison "sentence", don't they? And a "sentence" is something one writes when someone has lines in detention - just a thought.

[80sChav]

When I was in the system, if you failed to turn up for a class detention, they would sanction you with a (shock horror!) more senior equivalent such as a faculty detention or even a Deputy Head's detention - one assumes the same thing but with a more senior member of staff, and so one was presumably supposed to be quaking in our boots at the thought of having to do a detention for someone who is close to God with regards to seniority.

I just never turned upto/ for Detentions to be fair George - it earned you kudos if nothing else Lol