Memories of corporal punishment

I actually just remembered my great grand father used make the leather straps to hit the kids with! (I never met him.)

Aglomerado wrote: »

Attended primary school in a rural village in the 80s. Teachers gave the odd thump to the shoulder or made you hold out your hand for a slap of the ruler but that was about it. One teacher was a wagon, but she didn't hit us. She was more verbally cruel.
I seem to have gone to a very sedate secondary school in the 90s! No violence from teachers whatsoever! It was a strict school too!
My dad who went to the same school as me in the 50s told me about children going to school barefoot. One teacher used to stomp the heel of her shoe on the children's bare feet... Vicious cow.
My mum told me about a male teacher who used to take young girls on his lap in the classroom and 'mess ' with them during lessons.

there was a male teacher in my primary school who did the same with young boys. ended up getting 18 months for it years later though he was only charged with touching one boy when he actually touched a lot more.

It was banned one year after I started secondary but the teachers (mostly priests) continued to dish it out for 4 more years. 2 in particular were very bad and I am glad they are dead now. They only stopped because their jobs were at risk and not because it was wrong. Meeting them years later they were still smug assholes and proud of the trauma they inflicted. The Irish teacher would bend you over the desk and lay into you with the flat part of a hurley. The Maths teacher would either take the side of a ruler and give you 10 whacks across the back of your fingers usually causing bruises or bleeding or if he took a dislike to you would make you kneel down, lift you off the ground by your ears or sideburns and follow up with a knee to the solar plexus or balls. Daily occurence and always over getting a question wrong in class, never discipline or unruly behavour. I hope they died roaring. One student committed suicide over this sort of treatment. Everyone accepted the beatings as we thought it went on in other schools.

I used to get the sh1te knocked out of me by the Christian brothers most days, but to be fair I was a little bollix and deserved most of it, I stood up to them a few times and threatened them with retaliation but that just resulted in further thumpings, I was about 14 before I was confident enough to slap one of them back, which funnily enough brought a complete end to them clattering me cause they knew I wouldn't take it and would lump them one back.

we had the old double desk where you shared with one other pupil.
each desk had a brass inkwell. cold, it was great for cooling the hand after it got a stick across it.
those were the days*sigh*

i dont know if its personality or experience but ive never raised my hand to anyone..human or animal.
i think it would take me having to defend myself or one of my family for me to do so.

Reading previous posts brings it back! Getting two slaps on the hand with a wooden stick as a 5 year old was a shocker coming from a home without violence. Two teacher, all boys school, female junior teacher and then graduate to the big room - with big stick. A leg off a chair was used, with the unfortunate child sent to the masters press to get the stick. 2, 4 or 6 strokes delivered. Sometimes for the smallest indiscretion. We hated the sight of him. It was very wrong but.. at the time it was the norm. I don't remember losing sleep or anything over it, got worse slaps on the hurling field. When the headmaster died years later there was a massive funeral. Lots of lads said they turned up to make sure the B@st@rd was dead.

Fatswaldo wrote: »

Reading previous posts brings it back! Getting two slaps on the hand with a wooden stick as a 5 year old was a shocker coming from a home without violence. Two teacher, all boys school, female junior teacher and then graduate to the big room - with big stick. A leg off a chair was used, with the unfortunate child sent to the masters press to get the stick. 2, 4 or 6 strokes delivered. Sometimes for the smallest indiscretion. We hated the sight of him. It was very wrong but.. at the time it was the norm. I don't remember losing sleep or anything over it, got worse slaps on the hurling field. When the headmaster died years later there was a massive funeral. Lots of lads said they turned up to make sure the B@st@rd was dead.

There was a PE and Irish teacher in my sisters school who was the definition of a b1tch and a bully. God but she loved herself. I reckon she was a psychopath - my sister used to say if she couldn't get at you - she tried to get to you . She broke a girl's pelvis forcing her to do the splits. The teacher wasn't even suspended after that - makes you wonder how some people get away with such behaviour tbh ...

gozunda wrote: »

There was a PE and Irish teacher in my sisters school who was the definition of a b1tch and a bully. God but she loved herself. I reckon she was a psychopath - my sister used to say if she couldn't get at you - she tried to get to you . She broke a girl's pelvis forcing her to do the splits. The teacher wasn't even suspended after that - makes you wonder how some people get away with such behaviour tbh ...

We'd one who berated a group of us (boys) for hammering the girls basketball team in a lunchtime game.

She lined us against the wall and ate us. Shouting 'does that make you feel like big men.'

They were playing some league final that week and she felt that we had undermined their confidence as none of us had ever really played basketball before.

road_high wrote: »

We had an old-school history teacher late 90s and he commanded such discipline and respect that he never needed to hit or threaten people- he was the best, most engaging teacher I ever had and was a total expert on his subject. Total control of the class at all times. Some people are cut out for teaching or they aren’t and there in usually lies the problem

Couldn't agree more with this.
I've seen people become teachers because mammy and daddy wanted them or they wanted a stable job.
They weren't gone on kids/teenagers. They were generally good kids in school and have difficult dealing with anybody who's a little but troublesome or not good enough. They can be afraid to try any type of restorative practice/positive behaviour management but just yell and shout.
Teachers have told me this. The way some teachers speak about kids in the staff room is appalling.

Flaccus wrote: »

My PE teacher held me under water in the swimming pool because i had a fear of swimming at the time. I nearly drowned and he told me in front of the class that if i told the parents it would go bad for me and them. He was an olympic throws coach, 6 foot 4, i was 12. He died a while bsck. Good riddance to him too.

At the very least that was assault and of the most serious kind. And I bet he did!
Around what year did that happen?

Ipso wrote: »

And on the other hand some people who done well were also ridiculed.
Without being pretentious, John lennon said it best: they hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool.

Absolutely- I had a cousin a bit older than me and she is a very clever girl and was good in school- in the 80s that was seen as being a bit “too forward” and she had to be kept in her place too!

thebaz wrote: »

I was , thats where many of my issues with school and authority came from , as someone said earlier the mental stuff, standing up in back of class was worse than the pysical hits (they wore off quick) , but the mental stuff made you a scapegoat for being called Thick - **** that

I hope you got the right help with education thereafter- the structure and methodology was wrong for you but there are many supports for different ways of learning now.
I can understand how people were damaged by those experiences and hated school

I was in National School till 1993. I remember getting rapped across the knuckles by a witch of a teacher dozens of time. If you were a poor student, she made you stand beside her at her desk doing the three R's. Prime spot for getting a knuckle rap. I don't ever ever remember her getting up from her desk and walking around the students desks. She stayed seated from 9am till 3pm.

I remember one day, during knitting class, which I hated, I must have nodded off with boredom and she called me by sort of whistling to me, I whistled back at her! She threw the needles and wool she had in her hand across the classroom at me. I was probably made stand in the corner for that. She also loved making a big scene in front of the class of unravelling your knitting if you'd dropped a stitch or made a mess of it.

In the late 1990's some parents started to vocalise their discontent with her and her outdated teaching methods. She took early retirement. Humiliating small children in school had had it's day.