Has anyone?

[fallen-archie]

Been subjected to corporal punishment at school like the cane, or plimsole or chair leg etc etc and if so has it left You traumatised? I am of course referring to the type of punishment administered a long time ago when people were far less enlightened than they are now and children would be seen though not heard! When going out into the playground meant that You expended energy playing rather than huddled around an iPhone and when you went home on the bus or walked rather than being collected in Mother’s car! Yes folks I am talking about a time when e were allowed out to play free from concerns about child abuse and when money was truly tight. do you think we were better or worse off than we are today especially as we are now being told that 4ml kids are living in abject poverty, which I assume means they cannot afford bread and dripping sandwiches?

[right-then-petal]

had the cane, i think he was trying to break it on me

walked to and from school

whats an iphone?

[dark_castle1]

had the belt quite a few times (tawse) and used to walk to and from school, in the winter it could be a bugger as the snow could be knee deep and your duffel coat got soaked, your trousers did not because they were short trousers. At play time we would go out and have snowball fights or in the summer play football.

In the summer holidays we used to arrange fishing ventures and walk a couple of miles to the loch, that after leaving a note for mum and dad to tell them where we were as we left the house before they were awake. We could not afford to go away on holidays so we were basically left to our own devices to entertain ourselves.

Like petal what is an iphone ? I was brought up when there were phone boxes with an A and B button and you used old pennies to make a phone call.

[al**bear]

We got the Tawse (belt)

A Gym teacher used to hit Us with a bat like this, 30 inch long & over an inch thick

or a bit of rope with a knot (the end of the climbing rope that hung from the ceiling)

Some Boys vandalised a Bus we were on and the same Gym teacher as above, gave them the Tawse,

certainly would take the Bat or rope than the Tawse from Him

There was a teacher You were sent to for the serious incidents, Mr Raeburn - on my schools FB page People still talk about Him

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Got the Tawse frequently, I'm not traumatised

Would rather have the Tawse than lines or detention 

[june-spoon28]

I got the plimpsole once, i was warned it was coming to had time to prepare. 😃

I shoved plenty of paper towels down my knickers, it didn't give me any trouble at all, though i think it bothered the teacher some as i don't think he could understand why i wasn't crying haha 🙃

[023mjc]

I got a ruler across my knuckles.  A punishment that acheived nothing because I then couldn't do any other schoolwork for a week.  I couldn't hold a pen, paintbrush, sewing needle etc. 

Maybe I'm looking back through rose coloured glasses, but I think those days were much more peaceful times. 

Yes, my parents were hard up but we were fed and clothed - but then our food didn't come ready prepared and our clothes didn't have designer labels.

Those 4 ml kids living in poverty -

Now, I'm not saying there is no poverty in this country, but I wonder how many of them have iphones, and 50" tellys in the lounge. 

There's a young woman near me who is quite hard up despite working.  She recently had a windfall but instead of paying off her credit card and setting some aside to make life a bit easier in the future, she went to Cape Verdi for 2 weeks. Maybe it's just me, but that's not what I would have done.

[astrologica]

In Junior school we had one teacher who would throw one of those wooden blackboard wipers at us if we kept talking...normally you could see it coming and dodge it!  If that didn't shut us up then we had a wooden ruler across the knuckles. It never did me any harm.

In secondary school , an all girls school, the teachers all wore those black flowing gowns, and they were terrifying. One black look was enough..no corporal punishment there. I too had to walk to school, two and a half miles each way, in all weathers. That never hurt me either. Times were hard, but we were very happy. I live near a large secondary school, and the things I see there some days are beyond belief. All the kids get picked up in cars and I know some of them live less than a mile away, I am amazed at the number of kids, not much older than 11 or 12 who come out of those gates and the first thing they do is light a cigarette! And their parents allow it...whatever happened to discipline!

[023mjc]

I also had a very long walk to school.  My dad worked nights, so occasionally if it had snowed in the winter, he would walk all the way down to school at home time to meet us with the sledge, and drag my brother and me all the way home - uphill all the way. Then he'd go off to work. That was much more fun than a car ride.

One thing I remember is having sore patches on the back of my knees all winter, where the wellies rubbed.

[dark_castle1]

My dad was constant nightshift down the pits and if the snow had fallen really bad through the night he would dig a tunnel through it to the front door to get in and to let us out in the morning. Yes it got that bad some times where we lived and because we were in a cul de sac at the bottom of a hill it use to drift against our block up to the windowsill of the bedroom. In fact in those days the only heating in the house was a coal fire in the living room and we had metal windows and the ice sometimes formed on the glass inside the house.

Oh god yes I remember those marks at the back of the legs where the wellies rubbed.

[al**bear]

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@023mjc wrote:

I got a ruler across my knuckles. 

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Heard loads of Catholics saying they got that for using 'The Devils hand'  (thier left) for writing - Even my mates brother got that in New Zealand from the Nuns

[upthecreekyetagain]

I went to St Joseph’s in Blackpool - a school run by the Irish Christian Brothers.

Each Brother carried a ‘strap’, about 12” long, 1/2” thick with a 4” split at the end.

In the three years I was there not a day went by without getting at least 2 strikes on each hand.  It was used so often that it all became rather pointless, if incredibly painful.

If you want more details just Google Irish Christian Brother, St Joseph’s, Blackpool.

As for children being safe back in the 50’s, that is a load of rubbish!  As I have stated we weren’t safe from physical harm nor were we safe from sexual exploitation, in or out of school.  

None of this made me over protective with my daughter when she was growing up but we did take sensible steps to make sure she was safe without restricting her freedom too much - she appears to have grown up as a well balanced and rounded young woman.

On a personal note I don’t feel traumatised by anything that happened during my formative years.

[cee-dee]

We had a master we called "George Henry"....... he taught History and used to carry a short stick up his sleeve, it was about an inch wide and about a half inch thick...... If he was in a bad mood, you knew it as soon as he walked in to the room because he'd be carrying the dreaded Detention Book. If he hadn't got it and someone gave him cause to create he'd say "Go'n get that book" ie, he was sending the poor unfortunate to the Staff Room to get the book! 

When a master came in to the form room to take a lesson, we all had to stand until we were told to sit down. In a bad mood, George Henry would pick on someone, "Shut up, sit down, you're in".

One thing I've never forgotten from school was that the headmaster (with gown and mortar board!) gave a short talk to us new boys and one of the things he said was "If you want to remember something, write it down". He was RIGHT. I've done that from then on!