Memories of school punishments
Another discussion on a parenting forum, where mothers respond to the question, “Who else is old enough to remember corporal punishment being used in schools?”:
PinkBubblesGoApe – “I’m 37, no idea if it really happened but rumors went round my tiny CofE school that 2 school terrors had been caned. Just the idea made us all sit up and behave for a while!!!”
Diedandgonetodevon -”I’m 28 and we had the cane or the ruler. Got whacked on the palm with the ruler once for talking in class. Was careful not to get caught again! The cane definitely made me more cautious of getting up to no good although I never heard of it actually being used on a girl in my school.”
MrsMuddle – “I am female and got the belt in Scotland. (For talking in an art exam!)”
LouLovesAeroplaneJelly – “I remember being caned by the nuns. On the backs of the knees too. Once was for having the wrong kind of pencil.”
Jellybrain – “All sorts at my convent boarding school(nuns are far from gentle). Sometimes we would be made to wait on the corridor at night by the matron for the house mistress to come in (usually a nun)… Once the mother superior was so shocked by my behaviour(i had spoken to some boys on the phone and they had written to me and a friend) that she said she would have to get in a priest to ‘ecsorcsize the devil from us’ before she would give us our punishment(the stick) which was actually quite funny.”
Fruitbeard – “Born in 1966. It was the cane at our senior school, given for stupid things like coming in with the wrong uniform… I did have my hand slapped once by my domestic science teacher as she thought I was about to take something out of the oven without oven gloves – I WAS wearing oven gloves and I was highly pissed off with her, especially as she didn’t apologise! (but she was a mental old bitch anyway)… And our entire brownie troop got our hands slapped by a ruler by Snowy Owl for playing leapfrog when we were supposed to be having ‘quiet time’ during a camp…”
SarahLondon1, who ‘went to a boarding school near Nottingham’ – “In middle school, I had the slipper from the deputy headmistress. 4 hard whacks whilst bending over her desk. That punishment was for getting 2 detentions in a week. Later that year, the same deputy head caned me for being truant from a lesson. The usual teacher was off and we had a supply teacher, so three of us decided to spend the lesson in the local park. Needless to say we all got found out and earned ourselves 6 strokes of the cane each. I think corporal punishment was banned shortly after that.”
BodenGroupie – “Cane was used a lot in my Catholic primary (not on me, I was an angel) and I remember the entire class being lined up against the wall while the teacher walked up and down the line with the cane until the culprit confessed. Unthinkable now. The sharp tongues of the nuns and secondary school caused even more pain!
And one longer one from Granny63:
“I’m 62 so the belt (strap or Lochgelly Tawse) was in daily use when I was at both primary and secondary school. Usual punishment was two strokes, one with right hand on top, second with left hand on top. I had this several times for misdemenours – being late, bringing algebra books on a geometary day and mainly for bad spelling – none of these beltings made the slightest difference to my behaviour since I was not late deliberatly (bus was full and did not stop), did my best but was never any good at spelling.
Maximum belting was six strokes… You did not tell your parents that you had had the belt and had to laugh it off among your peers, it was very shameful if you cried. Our lovely register teacher left the room and came back to a near riot. She took out her belt and said ‘Out here you, you and you and ANYONE ELSE WHO WAS TALKING’. All but two swots went out and she belted us all, about 30 of us, then she left the room in tears. I have never forgotten that.
Funnily enough some teachers were belters and some never did. Generally behaviour was better in the classrooms of the non-belters.”
