The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

[monkey hanger]

hated school from day one and lived in constant fear of the cane which was given out for things that are run of the mill these days. was brought up to question things and not believe everything you are told. this did not go down well with the 1950,s education system where you were expected to be religeous and a lover of the king and queen. do agree about the present days kids or should i say students behaviour but i,d hate us to go back to those dark days again.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Like you, I had an enquiring mind,(still have) but could not read until I was seven(it was all greek to me) but once i could read I made up for lost time.
I was sensible enough to know that inquisitiveness was not really valued at school, but it was alright at home.
I liked school, but there were times when the teachers scared me, but I don't quite know why, as I was only subjected to corporal punishment there the once.
The teachers were very authoritarian(maybe it was that).

[Less]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Like you, I had an enquiring mind,(still have) but could not read until I was seven(it was all greek to me) but once i could read I made up for lost time.
I was sensible enough to know that inquisitiveness was not really valued at school, but it was alright at home.
I liked school, but there were times when the teachers scared me, but I don't quite know why, as I was only subjected to corporal punishment there the once.
The teachers were very authoritarian(maybe it was that).

Swop authoritarian for nowt but bullies that was my school.

[Rowlf]

I remember being physically sick every day waiting for the bus to Peel Park when I was about 7yrs old. I was in Mrs Beckers class and she frightened me to death. She never hit me. I dont think the jam jar bottom glasses and the over powering perfume helped. She took a dislike to me and was always on my case. I once pulled myself up to my full height
and told her if she did not stop shouting at me I would bring my dad to her and he would have his clogs on. Ha ha bet that frightened her. Where I got the courage for it I shall never know. It was the one and only time I ever talked to a teacher that way.

[Less]

At junior school one of the teacher would take her PMT out on the lads, we all wore shorts back then, when she (wrongly) decided to take her vengeance against the male population she would lift the shorts in front of the class and attack his buttocks with either her hand or on the bad days a plimsoll.
About 10 years after suffering such humiliation I was on a dinner break from work.
She was walking towards me with I assume a student teacher in tow.
I pleasantly asked if she was miss such & such, oh yes she replied, then turned to the student and said, it's always such a joy to be recognised by former pupils.
I asked, are you still lifting boys trousers and taking your frustration out on them? Because as far as I'm concerned if you are you are as sick now as you were then.

The student teacher, was trying her best not to laugh, but she knew I was asking for a true answer.

[MrPastry]

I remember the hard wood blackboard cleaner very well from secondary School. My English teacher could throw it at you with 1cm accuracy anywhere in the classroom and there was no escape no matter where you sat. He would usually shout your name first then launch it at you hoping for maximum impact.

On the up side I bumped into my owd headmaster in my 40's and he was a smashing chap then retired. He was so encouraging and understanding to us all as kids and was just the same then as he was when I chatted to him.

[dotti34]

Hmm! the old blackboard cleaner – wasn’t that the primary reason for having one, to throw at students…. We had a science teacher who not only threw the chalk rubber-outer but also an empty syrup tin of the large size (at least it wasn’t full!). He threw this with great accuracy – but I have to admit it was only at boys. The girls he delighted in tormenting by creeping up on them unawares and pulling their hair very hard – especially those with plaits….and it hurt!

[dotti34]

Regarding the cane. The first school I attended had had the same headmaster since the year dot – or so it seemed. He believed in the cane and used it quite often but only on boys. When his current cane either broke or ‘disappeared’ (strange how often that happened) he would ask for a couple of volunteers to go for a walk down the fields and bring him back a long branch that would make another. There would always be two who would volunteer thinking it would be free time out of school but when they returned with suitable stick, all excited because they’d found one and expecting praise, the dear old headmaster would instead try it out on them first to make sure it was a good one. Some boys would fall for this every time. Suckers!

When he was caning a lad he always made sure that he caned the hand not used for holding a pen (by the way, this was long before the biro was invented!!!!) and then he would place the end of the cane under the hand, then over, under, over, under and then whack! whack! whack!

[dotti34]

This same headmaster was there when my siblings attended that school (a lot of years before me) and was very handy with the cane even then. One of my sisters told me of a painful trick played on him when she was in his class. Apparently he suffered from haemorrhoids quite badly so he always had a thin cushion on his chair. One day some of the lads who had suffered at his hands placed a number of drawing pins on said cushion (points facing up of course) and as these were of a similar colour to the cushion they were undetectable – that is until the poor man sat down on them……

[Less]

Just goes to show, back then teachers weren't teachers, they were bullies with no idea how to treat children, hopefully, there is now a bond of learning that allows them to teach and that has our prodigy willing to learn.