Memories of corporal punishment

realitykeeper

Recently I was thinking of my school days when corporal punishment was practiced. Even when I was not the recipient of this form of punishment but just a witness, it was very frightening - especially when the children were punished for things like poor homework or classwork (as opposed to behaving badly).

Paradoxically, I retain tremendous respect for one teacher who beat and terrified kids but got the job done. His frustration always came through when he was shouting at us and this made me aware of the need to study hard and focus.

I also remember the smell of freshly baked bread from the bakery of the way to school and to this day, I feel a sense of dread when I smell freshly baked bread.

Instances of corporal punishment were still common in the early eighties but not so much after that. Anyone else have, memories of corporal punishment, be they witnessed or experienced? If so, you might find it cathartic to share them (or not).

I do remember the various impliments used. A duster, a strong angular stick, a leather, a short rounded stick, a hand, a pencil. Scary stuff for a seven year old.

corner of hells

I can remember the son of a famous Dublin footballer getting seven shades beaten out of him on a regular basis by a Kerry teacher in the 70s for no particular reason other than Kerry and Dublin.

gozunda

Oh I remember the days - how we would laugh when they beat the crap out of us. And if you went home and told what had happened - you'd get another clatter because teachers like priests could never be wrong. And still we laughed ...

hatrickpatrick

I have rather fond memories of the first time I was with a woman who shared my interest in sending me home red-assed and howling :pac: I've never looked at a ping pong paddle the same way again

freshpopcorn

I'm not old enough to remember corporal punishment. I had a teacher that never gave out a detention/etc and he wasn't gone it.
He did say that a few bullies/people who treated people badly deserved it and some of those were in the staff room.

Recliner

A timber metre stick across the palm of the hand was the weapon of choice for the nuns in my primary school.
If you had given any reason to displease the nun during the day, you knew what was coming.
Lined up at the end of the day with your fellow criminals, one hand behind your back and one outstretched palm side up. And woe betide you if you pulled back your hand before the slap.
The teachers pets got to pass judgement on us as to whether or not we escaped punishment, depending on the severity of our crimes.
Really took bravery to assault sobbing 6/7/8 year olds.
Jesus thinking about it now actually horrifies me. What sort of creatures would willingly do that to children and call themselves godly people?
And I'm very aware that what I experienced is on the very mild end of what went on.

Giveaway

Wooden spoon broken over brother's head. He was an adult at the time too

thebaz

I was schooled just before corporal punishment/ beatings were to be phased out - as a 9 year old kid I was traumatised by a particular teacher , it was not until I was 16 that I got the strength to fight back - and I did - with a vengeance - which got me into more trouble - so I dont have fond memories of corporal punishment , it was not until later life when I heard other friends who had been traumatised much worse , abuse , that I fealt at peace and forgiving , and a little grateful just to have got physical abuse.

Snowfire

Elderly neighbour was recalling his school days and corporal punishment. He said headmaster would send them out to the playing field to fetch a stick from the hedge to beat them with.
“And like a fu#kin idiot we’d bring him back a good solid one”

Your Face

I got a few digs in the arm, nothing serious.

Some lads got a bit worse and deserved them too.

tayto lover

The cane and “six of the best” was the norm in our school.
We feared that teacher. I saw him lift a boy off his feet by the cheeks and slam his head off the blackboard. Cruel cnut.

_Brian

Was hammered daily for being left handed.
Bleak times.

SlowBlowin

Remember the old blackboard rubbers, the heavy wooden ones ?

We had one teacher who would lose his temper and throw them at us. Split one kids head open, and he stopped doing it after this, but I dont think he got into any trouble.

The slipper (normally gym shoe) and cane were common. The slipper when correctly delivered was most painful, I had it from one teacher who used to make you pull your trousers and pants down prior, not sure that would be acceptable nowadays...

mvl

nah, I was usually on the favorites list of my teachers // so no corporal punishment for me.
except the geography teacher: I was so scared of failing her (something like that had to be followed by public humiliation in front of the class), I would often forget my words. this had an effect on my lack of interest in geography/geology, as it felt I was not good at it.

Pinch Flat

Went to a Christian brothers school. Some genuinely nutty people teaching there.

Some of the situations were mad. Sent to the head brothers office for a lash of the leather. Another teacher preferred the back of the knuckles. But to top it off, we had one brother who preferred a cane. Used to jump on the air hitting fellas.

Except Christmas. The cane was josephs staff in the crib, so we got a few weeks of a reprieve.

mjsc1970

Back in the 80's in secondary school. Not even sure corporal punishment was outlawed or not by then.
One of the lay teachers in our CBS used to too easily loose his shït on some poor unfortunate.
Was interesting one day when he picked on the wrong 13 year old. A bit of a stand off ensued.
Teacher was asked was he brave enough to step one foot closer. He didn't. For 10 seconds he'd the whole class looking straight at him and for the first time the fear was on him. I never forget that.

Irish Guitarist

I'm just barely at the age where it had been scrapped when I was going to school.

There was one instance in fifth class or sixth where I started scribbling on the desk. The teacher said "would the lad who's writing on the desk stop". I somehow thought he was talking about someone else and kept scribbling. He then hit me across the knuckles with a ruler. I put the pencil down but he just kept beating my knuckles until he drew blood.

This was in the late eighties and corporal punishment had just been stopped a couple of years before. I got the impression he had wanted to give someone a good beating for years. I wonder what he would have been like when it was still legal.

Autosport

I remember it well, I was one of the unfortunate girls who the teacher loved to hit/slap etc He made me terrified of men and as I was a quiet/shy girl I never told anyone. The day I heard he died I smiled and said He can't hurt anyone anymore This was in the 90's so not that long ago.

decky1

Ah the ould 'CHRISTIAN' Brothers and their Black Jacks[where did they get these things made?] did'nt spare them on us right into secondary school and we let them away with it, we had a relief teacher one summer in national school and he killed us for the 2 weeks he was there [with a piece off a chair , he lived a few miles outside our town hav'nt seen him since that summer would love a go at him now,same school a guy in our class did'nt seem to have any feeling in his hands the poor ould brothers used to beat him and all he did was laugh at them,same guy used to catch Wasps and keep them in his ink well on the desk[that's go'in back a bit,] we had another brother and god bless him he was the tallest ugliest man in the world if you were misbehaving he'd just walk up to you and hit you a box yes it did hurt.we had a duster trower in secondary school a lay teacher who owned a pub in a very popular part of the county [near bray] great shot .An alcoholic also had a go at teaching us science well from wednesday on that is monday and tuesday he'd be to sick to talk, Ah the good ould days.

EdgeCase

I started primary school quite a while after corporal punishment was banned, but I still had a few odd incidents.

I was regularly held upside down over the classroom bin by my feet. You know those metal frames with a black bag stretched over them.

I also got made wear a Dunce's Cap and stand in the corner and we used to have a teacher who would "freak out" and run over the tops of the desks. So we lived in fear of causing this to happen.

The absolute weirdest one was a female teacher who threatened to glue us to the ceiling with super glue if we misbehaved. She also chased us around the class with a broom.

In secondary school in the late 90s I had dusters thrown at me and one of our teachers actually smashed a window hurling a heavy book in a fit of rage.

I also went to school on the continent and generally though Irish schooling was like something out of the dark ages. Uniforms, military discipline, yelling and screaming teachers, little or no opportunity to ask questions a lot of the time or discuss any topics. Mostly a top down, learn by rote system.

I hope it's changed.

foxy farmer

In primary school late 70s early 80s. Principal was a tall greyhaired man with an obsession with the Irish language. Came from the gaeltacht. Mad about any budding GAA players. He had a handshake that would dislocate your shoulder and a slap in the arse would lift you off your feet. Often saw him clattering lads. Had a manipulative streak where he would catch you out. Pulled it on me once over me not drinking the carton milk that was delivered everyday. Nasty piece of work. We nicknamed him Crowbar. A 5th/6th class teacher was supposed to have put lads in hospital with broken arms. He got his comeuppance yrs later.
Saw another teacher make a lad kneel down and put his head in a bin for 2 days because he ran into another chap and split his head on a rough dashed wall. Strung him up on a coat hook as well. Teachers came in their turns to ridicule him. And last but by no means least we had someone who was recently sentenced to a second term in prison for abusing a lad in the 90s. He was first convicted for abusing girls back in the 70s.

freshpopcorn

EdgeCase wrote: »

I also went to school on the continent and generally though Irish schooling was like something out of the dark ages. Uniforms, military discipline, yelling and screaming teachers, little or no opportunity to ask questions a lot of the time or discuss any topics. Mostly a top down, learn by rote system.

I hope it's changed.

Some teachers are still like that. They sort of live in a land of their own. Often forced to become teachers by their parents and now they are a little mini dictator.(They say it's the only way to keep a class controlled but other teachers manage without doing it.)
They generally aren't popular with the staff either.
A lot has improved tough.

freshpopcorn

My secondary school principal would push you around or poke you for not wearing shoes, your tie or wearing a coat/jacket and this was being the 2000's.

Some of the recollections here are totally horrific.

My own experience is a bit less conspicuous, but I was taught by a temporary teacher who would frequently slap us on the face or the wrist if we didn't do as we were told. I'm only speaking here about the late 1990s.

I remember telling my Mum what this teacher was doing. She thought it was very unlikely, she simply didn't believe it.

padd b1975

SNIP. Do not name individuals please.

NIMAN

I went to a catholic grammar school in Derry, which had its share of sadistic teachers who loved nothing more than inflicting pain on youngsters.

And the more I think about it, I actually remember being strapped in primary school, so I would have been maybe 9 or 10.

Shocking when you think about it in this day and age. When it was mentioned to our parents in them days, they would usually say "well you must have done something to deserve it" (when often it was something so slight that it wasn't justified).

Could you imagine what would happen now? The parents would be down to the school straight away, either looking to punch the teacher or else sue for a couple of hundred K.

EdgeCase

We definitely had a few absolute creeps as teachers. I think these days they'd have been reported to the authorities but it was just strange behaviours like very regularly trying to engage guys in discussions about totally inappropriate topics.

I assume people these days would be much more likely to flag that kind of inappropriate stuff with authorities.

I'm not aware of anything ever physically happening and the two guys I'm referring to: an old Christian Brother and a regular teacher are both dead now, but it was very weird when I look back from the perspective of being an adult.

Strange times. It's amazing what was tolerated tbh. I actually feel a bit bad about not having flagged it up at the time but I was only 12-13.

screamer

I’m young enough but remember vividly myself and my friend at 4 years of age getting a meter stick across the backs of our fingers for not cleaning up counters fast enough. That is one of my first and only memories of school. I also remember his dad coming down to the school and firing a chair out the window and telling the teacher she’d be next if she ever touched us again,old bitch.
Secondary I remember being made kneel on concrete floor if you forgot your book and the teacher would come around and wrap your head with the top of his knuckles whilst making you call yourself various forms of an ejit. Obviously that worked out well for him as he’s the principal now...

judeboy101

Standing in the corner when bold, and getting a choice of 10 slaps with the soft ruler or 1 with the steel tipped one. Ironically there was no adhd, asd or Add back then, homework always done, no one late for school and classes quiet as mouses. Best days of my life.

EdgeCase

They were the worst days of a lot of people's lives though. I've heard plenty of horror stories from older relatives. You'd wonder how it impacted school dropout rates too. Ireland's got very high levels of education now but if you go back a generation or two really early school leaving was common.

freshpopcorn

judeboy101 wrote: »

Standing in the corner when bold, and getting a choice of 10 slaps with the soft ruler or 1 with the steel tipped one. Ironically there was no adhd, asd or Add back then, homework always done, no one late for school and classes quiet as mouses. Best days of my life.

I actually spoke to relatives about this. There was plenty of people misbehaving in class, not getting things rights,etc. The main difference was the kids who struggled got the crap beat out of them for not being able to learn off prayers or not being the sharpest or there parents weren't good enough for the teacher and they left school with a poor education. Great days!

Pintman Paddy Losty

There was one of my teachers in the late 70s that had a ferocious temper. He was gaeilgor and supporter of the cause.

One day I put a few tacks on his seat. He got an awful sting when he sat on the seat that day. Hahaha.

He was on the warpath to find out who did it. I told him after class that the slow lad delaney did it. He beat seven shades of blue out of him with a metre stick. I never heard howling like it. Went on for about 20 mins. Hahaha.

Some great stories from school.

Hector Savage

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

There was one of my teachers in the late 70s that had a ferocious temper. He was gaeilgor and supporter of the cause.

One day I put a few tacks on his seat. He got an awful sting when he sat on the seat that day. Hahaha.

He was on the warpath to find out who did it. I told him after class that the slow lad delaney did it. He beat seven shades of blue out of him with a metre stick. I never heard howling like it. Went on for about 20 mins. Hahaha.

Some great stories from school.

Jaysus Paddy!

Tell us more stories from school , seriously , start a thread in AH, I miss your posts.

Also hows the ladies been treating ye lately ?

EdgeCase

What I see when I look at Ireland of that era is a nation of very downtrodden underachievers, who often lacked confidence and we're very unsure of themselves.

You see a lot of older Irish people in the UK who were clearly brutalised by the system. They arrived with few skills, usually with a notion of getting away from the system - those I spoke to were ex-Magdaline laundries and industrial schools. You see it in the USA too where you'd have had older generations who arrived with relatively poor education compared to their US contemporaries. From the 50s on, it was unusual not to complete highschool. Whereas in Ireland it was very common not to until well into the 80s. You'll also see the US uber confident personality Vs the older Irish generations who were very deferential to authority or if they weren't they tended to engage with it oddly.

That's also why in the UK I think you see a massive culture gap between recent (since the 90s) arrivals and previous generations. They've often nothing in common other than a passport.

What went on here in schools and institutions in the 20th century wasn't education. I don't know what it was tbh.

It can't have done the country any good to have beaten every grain of creativity out of students. It seems to have been an old system that was maybe tracing is origins back to an era where it was preparing canon fodder for the British army and obedient worker drones to selflessly go down mines an so on. It was entirely about brutalising and disciplining people, not educating them.

It's no wonder Ireland's seen such rapid social and economic change over a compressed few decades - the tools of oppression were quietly decommissioned. It's a very different place really.

empacher

My brothers knuckles were broken my the narrow length of the metre stick. I stood up clocked him and knocked him to the floor. That ended our education, it was also a few years before our parents spook to us because of the 'embarassment'of hitting a priest. We got jobs on trawlers the next day.

GrumpyMe

I am still conflicted about the schadenfreude I felt upon hearing about a "Christian Brother" contact(sic) from 57 years ago who was suffering from thanatophobia as he lived out his final years in a nursing home.

Bigbagofcans

One of my earliest memories of school was getting wacked on the hand with a ruler by my teacher. I was only 4 at the time and this was in the mid-nineties!

John DoeReMi

I'm 54 and went to a Christian Brothers school in Dublin. No shortage of corporal punishment there. I was reasonably good in school so avoided the worst excesses but I did get the odd whack of a ruler across the tips of my fingers.

The worst was one particular Brother who was an absolute scumb*g, he used to batter some of the slower kids from one side of the room to the other. I have absolutely no doubt that some of those unfortunates are now probably abusers of their own kids or partners or have alcohol/drug problems. There were rumours at the time of him molesting kids and it came as no surprise to me years later to discover that he went down for ten years for molesting kids in another school.

An earlier poster was talking about getting hammered for being left handed which I'd heard about. I'm left handed as well although thankfully nobody gave a toss about that in my school.

ohnonotgmail

I still remember the sting that Archie left on my fingertips. Archie being the name of the piece of broom handle the teacher used to hit us with.

Hector Savage

I went to primary school from 1984-1991, we used to be hit a bit in the 1st few years ...but died out after that.

Tacitus Kilgore

It's no wonder so many people are 'fcuked up', (for want of a better phrase). Reading this thread is brutal, some of you were essentially straight-up tortured

Even in the 90s we were on the receiving end of the slap & battered with endless catholic dogma.


But by gum is it brilliantly different now - Nothing but positivity in schools, kids are treated as equal human beings and not being beaten and bullied senseless by those who are supposed to nurture them.


The current generation of primary school kids will be the ones who save the world I reckon.

pawdee

I was beaten at all four primary schools I attended starting in 1973. I've been punched, slapped, caned (regularly with a bamboo stick and a few times with what appeared to be a piece of a chair). In secondary school I was punched square in the jaw by a crazy science teacher and almost knocked out cold. I was about 4ft tall at the time and it was post 1982 (so therefore illegal). The verbal abuse was another story. Probably more damaging in the long run. What a bunch of animals.

fryup

Hector Savage wrote: »

I went to primary school from 1984-1991, we used to be hit a bit in the 1st few years ...but died out after that.

wasn't it out-lawed by that stage?

ohnonotgmail

fryup wrote: »

wasn't it out-lawed by that stage?

It ended in 82 i think. Or maybe it was 81. I definitely remember it ending and having to do lines instead of getting a slap. I infinitely prefered the slap.

Tow

We had 'The Biffer'. A leather strap which came in two sizes, the big one and small one! Applied to the hand at least twice, depending on the severity of the punishment. Of course, that was the official method. Other teachers had flying wooden dusters, slaps to the face etc. A teacher threw me up against the wall once, because I had left my homework in another classroom. He was an unstable individual, I now see he is the principle of a collage in the UK!

.......

We were regularly beaten with the metre stick, dusters, open handed slaps.

But the worst single occasion I remember still haunts me now. I genuinely cannot remember my transgression, perhaps I was talking in class - I dont think it was to do with schoolwork.

But whatever it was, I was sent to the office. The head nun took me by the arm and began to beat me on the backside with her hand. The sudden viciousness and violence frightened the life out of me and I simultaneously began to bawl screaming and crying and wet myself - I was about 5 or 6 years old at the time. The nuns hand (and the floor) got splashed with my urine and she became truly incandescent with rage. She beat me all the harder, roared at me for being a filthy child.

When the beating was over I was sent to sit on a wooden chair and await my mother to collect me. I dont know how they sent home for my mother, I dont think we had a telephone in those days, perhaps they phoned a neighbour.

Anyway, she arrived, and this was the worst part - she apologised to the demon in a habit that had just violently assaulted her child. And the nun suggested I get further punished when I went home. We left, with my mother behaving in a servile manner with that woman - when she should have punched her goddam lights out.

Vicious evil bitches those nuns were.

Shortly afterwards corporal punishment was abolished in schools, but by then we had moved house and I was in a non religious orders school where no one was getting beaten (in my class anyway), but I remained in terrible dread of school for years, Sunday evening mass would fill me with dread.

valoren

Would be great to read stories where after getting clattered by a teacher, said teacher runs into one of their ex-pupils, and get's a hiding. There is something very pleasing in the schadenfreude of a cnut getting their just deserts.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Late 70's/early 80's - The headmaster in my primary school was a vicious old bastard. He used every opportunity to beat children and done so on a regular basis. I remember once being called into his classroom after lunch, I was about 9 or 10 and he told me that he had called me earlier and I didn't answer (I genuinely didn't hear or know that he called me) I told him I never heard him and he told me I was a liar. He then took out his piece of 2x4 and made me put out both hands and whacked me as hard as he could 4 or 5 times on each hand. My right hand started bleeding as he had hit me so hard. Later than evening my hand was aching and I wasn't able to write so I was beaten a further 3 more times on my left hand only for that. When I heard he died in the late 90's from heart failure, I was genuinely glad. He was a vicious bad tempered tyrant and I hope his death was painful.

I remember other teachers using a wooden ruler to slap children on the palms of the hands, it was more stinging than sore but was a regular occurrence however if you were very bold (or not and the teacher just believed you were) you were sent to the headmaster and he battered you with his 2x4 (which was originally a sword that a boy who happened to the son of one of the other teachers and it was confiscated and became the punishment tool)

That was over 40 years ago yet I still get angry when I think of that old bastard beating children like it was fun.

pawdee wrote: »

I was beaten at all four primary schools I attended starting in 1973. I've been punched, slapped, caned (regularly with a bamboo stick and a few times with what appeared to be a piece of a chair). In secondary school I was punched square in the jaw by a crazy science teacher and almost knocked out cold. I was about 4ft tall at the time and it was post 1982 (so therefore illegal). The verbal abuse was another story. Probably more damaging in the long run. What a bunch of animals.

Was your science teachers initials JF?? We had a crazed science teacher too,he'd absolutely loose it and drag boys over desks, punching and beating them for mispronouncing a word or answering back when asked a question. He'd then revert to calm and quiet almost instantaneously and act like nothing had happened. He was suspended a few times for it, once for breaking a boys arm. Thankfully I was never on the receiving end of his abuse.

.......

valoren wrote: »

Would be great to read stories where after getting clattered by a teacher, said teacher runs into one of their ex-pupils, and get's a hiding. There is something very pleasing in the schadenfreude of a cnut getting their just deserts.

Id like to have sued the bitch that beat me that day but they were protected when corporal punishment was made illegal by being made exempt from civil cases or prosecution for their crimes.

Borderfox

Metre sticks, drum sticks, leathers, canes, umbrellas, fists, feet and generally anything that came to hand was used. I got the leather everyday in 4th class because I had an accident and broke my left wrist so couldn't write. Everyday until the cast came off, another teacher hit me with his fist in the side for talking in class that I had a huge bruise on my side for weeks. We were children at that stage, all in primary

retro:electro

It was illegal by the time I attended school, but it didn’t stop the cruelty and brutality, it just manifested in more psychological terms. I was taught by the same nuns who once had free reign to slap and abuse, so no doubt they struggled with the lack of control and thus were sadistic in other means. Not letting you go to the toilet (many of us had accidents) making you stand up and read aloud over and over and over until you read a passage without stumbling, if any of us scratched our heads we’d be made fun of for having nits, and god help you if you were from a broken home, you were the target of ridicule and abuse and derogatory comments about your home life. If you didn’t know the weekend sermon from mass on a Monday morning, you were the chosen target for the day. I’ve memories of walking to school with girls who had been to mass and desperately trying to gather what the sermon was about, for fear I would be asked.
Although it was outlawed, there was still the odd slap, but they usually were saved for the more deprived children whose parents probably didn’t give a fcuk and wouldn’t have issue with it. One girl in my class was hard of hearing and didn’t put her pencil down when told to and she got a slap right across her face. The red mark was still there hours later walking home from school.
Although they gave me a good primary education, being taught solely by nuns was suffocating and it was only when I went to secondary school I felt I could breathe and relax, and I didn’t have this fear of needing to know something or else be ridiculed.

Schools today aren’t perfect but it’s nice to see kids running into school happy and laughing, a far cry from thirty, forty years ago when my mother used to walk to school with the fear of god inside her. It’s just mad to think what they got away with, I’m not sure you’d ever get over it. I feel sorry for those who had this as a pattern in their schooling on the regular, especially those who struggled with learning; as they got the worst of it.