Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

My school days up until I was 12 are a bit of a hazy memory because I went to so many different schools up until then.

One thing I do remember though is the fact that I had never really experienced or witnessed corporal punishment and I'd never experienced the kind of mental torture that was dished-out in a North London Secondary-Modern.

To me, that was worse and it ruined my life.

Before that, I loved school, I loved to learn and, although I was painfully shy, I was happy to be at school.

By the time I was 16 all I wanted to do was get out of going to school.

All the hopes and dreams that I'd had were effectively destroyed in 4 years so, despite being a bright kid with the potential to do well academically, I left school with just CSEs - still 8 of them but not nearly as important back then as the O levels I should have romped through.

If I had passed all the O levels that I knew I could do easily, my whole life would have been completely different.

Someone I was at that school with regularly goes to the reunions and some time ago he told me that one particular teacher was still around and I couldn't believe what he said about this sadist being a "nice old boy".

When I was leaving that school for the last time I told that man that if I could ever find a way to kill him and get away with it scot-free I'd be back.

Luckily for him I never did. stevmk2

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

You have reminded me of my school days. I remember changing schools and being in the Maths lesson and being called up to the teachers desk to go though my work book.

I must have got something wrong and was asked what the correct answer was, I remember thinking why is the rest of the class looking at me, when I still got the answer wrong I was slapped very hard on my bare leg.

The other kids knew that this was coming but of course being new to the school I didn't. My god did it hurt.

I made sure that did not happen again. Either because I stayed out of hitting distance or didn't get called up to the front again.

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

I got caned and "slippered" dozens of times at Junior School. I was a bit of a tearaway, but also one of the brightest in a not very bright class. As a result, whenever I was asked to read out loud, I was usually 20 or 30 pages ahead of the class and didn't have a clue which passage I should be reading. The teachers defined this as "not paying attention" or "daydreaming!" and I was (frequently) punished accordingly. I would be lying if I said that this traumatised me or affected me negatively in any way whatsoever. It was just the way things were and I learned to multi-task - listening with one ear to the class and reading ahead while I did so.
The cane was only given for "serious" offences and I had it several times for slipping out of school to the local shops, or climbing the school fence into the adjoining allotments to retrieve errant footballs.
The one thing I do remember very very clearly is that neither the slipper nor the cane hurt anywhere nearly as badly as being hit on the bare thigh (school uniform included grey flannel shorts - long trousers not allowed) with a heavy, wet football on a cold morning in the playground - the mark and soreness would last for days!

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

My worst experience with a teacher was with a maths teacher called Brian Wilson now disease.

It started the first day he saw my name in the register and asked of I was JP's sister and I said yes .
He obviously didn't like my sister.

After that his lessons became a nightmare . He was horrible to a number of children and had a few 'favourites' who could do no wrong but I was singled out for 'special' treatment .
This included making my kneel in front of the class/do press-ups/stand on my chair/have my book torn up and thrown in the bin.
I became a trembling wreck unable to answer the questions which were fired around the class, when this happened he would stand behind me and thump me in the back saying 'speak up girl I can't here you ' .My fear of him became so bad I used to vomit in the loo before his lessons.

One time he was adjudicating in an English exam. A girl spoke to me about borrowing a rubber and I told her to 'shush'. He tore up both our exam papers for cheating so we received no marks.

I told no one about this until years late when I was an adult and my sister informed me that he had died.

His treatment of me had far reaching consequences, I can do simple maths but anything more than that and I freeze with fear.

When people ask how children can remember the details of abuse cases that happened years ago I am sure they can. I can remember every detail of that classroom right down to the smell, the chalk dust floating in the air and my tormentors brown shiny shoes as I knelt on the floor before him .

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

I went to a convent school..one day the nuns decided to take us to the zoo..we had to walk two by two..

It must have been Spring because all the animals were mating..

Went to the Lions...they were at it..monkeys ditto...wildebeestes..mounting each other..In the end I burst out laughing...we went to the insect house..same there...

I was still laughing..amongst cries of ''dirty girl'' and having the back of my head slapped...

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

My nemesis was a Maths teacher too; a Welshman called Jones.
He told me I would never come to anything as I was useless and a closet homosexual.

In 1985, at Chippenham Technical College, I sat an A level maths paper for our course's Maths tutor, just to satisfy HIS curiosity.

I passed it easily. stevmk2

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

I can remember one teacher at my junior school who for some reason hated me. Actually correction, many years later, when my son was at the dyslexia institute being assessed and part of the assessment was an IQ test, and I asked them, out of curiosity, if I could also take a test. Long story short, we both scored over 130, which of course explains my 'ennui' all those years ago, caused by a total lack of stimulation. Anyway, during the year leading up to the 11+ she constantly stated her conviction that not only would I fail! I would fail miserably. There were actually three levels at the time, if you passed you went to the local Grammar school, if you passed really well you went to the more elite Grammar school further down the valley. And of course if you failed then it was the Secondary Modern, which is where she was convinced I would end up. Whenever she walked past me she would find an excuse to rap my knuckles with the edge of her ruler.

As the time for the exam drew nearer she would constantly reiterate her belief that the sec mod was calling me, and that in the unlikely event I actually passed she would do a war dance around her desk.

Did I pass? Well, not to brag, not only was I in the top 10% in the area, and therefore qualified for the 'better' school, I actually was in the top 10% of those. Did she do her war dance? No, but I ruddy well did.

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

Good for you Steve , I think these people were failures in some way themselves and took out their frustrations on anyone they saw as an easy target

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

We used to have a competion to see who could get caned the most times in a day.

Re: Did anyone on here suffer the violence that Teachers dished out decades ago??

Wow!

Was this the Wechsler Test daisy?

I was collared by a government department in the 70s and I got paid to go to a test centre every Thursday (from work) for one hour to do Wechsler IQ Tests and they gave me the results which I've got somewhere - 119, which I was quite chuffed about!

It was quite funny when they gave me the results though.

The government bloke said "Can I ask you a question?" so I said Yes, fire away.

He said: -

"I've got to know you over the past few weeks and I've seen clearly that you are well above average intelligence so may I ask why on Earth are you working in a factory, building and testing Forklift Trucks for a living?"

I said: - "Simple answer?" "It's all I could get with my qualifications!!"

One person ruined my life and he was a teacher! stevmk2