Memories of corporal punishment

gozunda · 19-02-2019 1:18pm

retro:electro wrote: »

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....

If for some reasons you believe that corporal punishment only happened in the absence of psyological cruelty and brutality then you couldn't be more wrong. Both existed side by side and were never challenged as they were part and parcel of the status quo. Not surprising that the same individuals in schools carried over an acceptance and continuation of this behaviour into later years.

storker · 19-02-2019 1:19pm

Tow wrote: »

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.

We had that in my school, but we called it "the blackjack". Actually several layers of leather stitched together. I saw the toughest guys in the class reduced to tears after having that applied to an open palm at high speed.

In secondary school the head brother used to go around with a big bunch of the school keys on a key ring, and thought nothing of applying them to someone's knuckles.

Then was the everyday stuff that didn't even qualify as "punishment" e.g. being encouraged to be faster at opening the right page by means of repeated punches to the upper arm.

Funny thing though, school discipline. Some teachers had it without ever resorting to violence. And I remember one who I'm sure never shouted or gave detention or hit anyone or even sent them to the principals office. And yet nobody messed in his class. (He had a funny habit of of repeatedly pacing a few steps forward...then back...then forward, etc while addressing the class jingling the keys and change in his pockets at the same time, the effect of which was to make it look as if he was always bursting for a pee.)

retro:electro · 19-02-2019 1:20pm

gozunda wrote: »

If for some reasons you believe that corporal punishment only happened in the absence of psyological cruelty and brutality then you couldn't be more wrong. Both existed side by side and were never challenged as they were part and parcel of the status quo. Not surprising that the same individuals in schools carried over an acceptance and continuation of this behaviour into later years.

Yeah I never said that.

Mint Sauce · 19-02-2019 1:21pm

Corporal Punishment had been done away with a few years before I started school. However looking back, you could see that some of the older teachers were frustrated that it was no longer an option, and found it difficult to control students, and the students knew it too.

Some incidents included board rubbers being fired across rooms, desk lids being closed down on hands/fingers, one student being chased around the room lifted up by the scruff of his neck, and one actually hitting a Nun, and telling her you cant hit me back!

SlowBlowin · 19-02-2019 1:24pm

gozunda wrote: »

If for some reasons you believe that corporal punishment only happened in the absence of psyological cruelty and brutality then you couldn't be more wrong. Both existed side by side and were never challenged as they were part and parcel of the status quo. Not surprising that the same individuals in schools carried over an acceptance and continuation of this behaviour into later years.

Offended again, how does more = only, pretty much the opposite meaning ?

Riesen_Meal · 19-02-2019 1:29pm

Raps on the knuckles with Rulers, boxes in the head from certain teacher's, put kneeling in a corner of a room for 110 mins with my nose in the corner, teachers calling around to friends mothers who were separated with bottles of vodka after school hours, all sorts of stuff I could go on...

Pinches twisted into my skin, choked, slaps across the face, and of course actual fist fights!

I remember a school trip to Connemara where some lads were battered by drunken teachers which was way worse to the point of having to apologize to parents

Christian brothers schools were the antithesis of craic for the most part, and most of this was after the ban!

road_high · 19-02-2019 1:29pm

Corporal punishment was well gone before my time in primary school but that didn’t stop one cow subtly using it regularly, especially on weaker kids. 25 years ago and it’s still clear as day in head and can still hear her screeching voice and facial expressions. She never hit me but used use psychological methods instead- can distinctly remember her exclaiming “you’d think butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth...”I think in reference to some mistake I may have done or said! A fairly cutting remark to say to a ten year old!
Her physical methods onto other kids were flicking their knuckles with a pen or light smack across the back of the head- she’d be arrested if it was now. That was only 92-94 years so not ancient history.

In fairness nothing compared to what went on in my das time. You’d actually feel a little emotional hearing the abuse kids suffered for nothing back then. Thank god teachers are so much better trained now and we do live in a time where’s there’s compassion and some understanding for children.

ollkiller · 19-02-2019 1:30pm

Never had any corporal punishment in primary but then entered a Christian Brothers secondary school in the 90's in Mayo. A vicious den of punishment. Canes, branches, fists, kicks, dusters, the lot was used basically.

One teacher was a champion boxer in his day. Regularly clocked children in class. Knocked one lad unconscious and left him there till the end of class. Wasn't a day in his class without someone getting hit. Music teacher had a branch to beat people up with. Got a new branch every year.
Science teacher broke a lads front tooth in half by hitting him across the back of the head and his tooth banged off the marble science table. Same teacher broke two ribs of another guy by kicking him into the radiator for a few minutes.

About half the teachers would give out physical punishment of some kind. I fortunately was lucky that i only got beat up once. On my second day in secondary school the christian brother science teacher beat up 28 lads out of 31 lads at half nine in the morning because we were talking and he had a massive hangover. Went round the class one by one and 5 or 6 roundhouse slaps across the back of the head. The three he didn't beat up were sons of Gardai. I got the required 5 slaps but he cut me across my eye. Went home that evening and the ould lady asked where did i get the cut. Regaled the story, next morning the ould lad went into the science teachers class, put him up against the wall and he got the message i was not to be touched. The ould lad then went to the principals office and plainly said if i was ever hit he would take out retribution on the principal. For the next 6 years not one teacher touched me and i am eternally grateful to the ould lad for that.

Suffice to say the day i finished secondary school was one of the best days of my life. A horrible experience.

road_high · 19-02-2019 1:40pm

Tacitus Kilgore wrote: »

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.

There’s many of us well under 40 that can vividly remember elements of corporal punishment still going on, well into the 90s.
I was good in school, but I hated it in many ways. The atmosphere was always on edge with one teacher in particular and I had her for 3 years.
Even up to that time, parents wouldn’t come in and question teachers though my own mother, fair play to her, did a few times when my brother was wronged completely. Now there’d be uproar and having gone through it, rightly so. Kids need discipline for sure but not smacks across the back of the head because they can’t do long division.

....... · 19-02-2019 1:42pm

My father was brutalised at the hands of the christian brothers himself.

He had the unfortunate luck to be left handed, so he was beaten daily until he wrote with his right hand. Then in a particularly bad beating a brother broke his right wrist, so when it healed he had to relearn to write with that hand again.

He remained a right handed writer but left handed for all else his whole life. He also had an abhorrance of physical punishment.

Strangely himself and my mother chose to send us kids to religious orders schools where we were also subjected to violence. I could never understand why my parents sent us there. My mother said later that it was considered the best education so they thought they were doing the best for us.

In my brothers school one particular brother used to get the kids to stand on a stool to reach the blackboard and do out the homework sums from the previous night on the blackboard. If the kid got anything wrong yer man would whack the stool out from under him with a hurley and let the poor kid hit the wooden floor. Just vicious bastards - should never have been allowed near children.

road_high · 19-02-2019 1:43pm

ollkiller wrote: »

Never had any corporal punishment in primary but then entered a Christian Brothers secondary school in the 90's in Mayo. A vicious den of punishment. Canes, branches, fists, kicks, dusters, the lot was used basically.

One teacher was a champion boxer in his day. Regularly clocked children in class. Knocked one lad unconscious and left him there till the end of class. Wasn't a day in his class without someone getting hit. Music teacher had a branch to beat people up with. Got a new branch every year.
Science teacher broke a lads front tooth in half by hitting him across the back of the head and his tooth banged off the marble science table. Same teacher broke two ribs of another guy by kicking him into the radiator for a few minutes.

About half the teachers would give out physical punishment of some kind. I fortunately was lucky that i only got beat up once. On my second day in secondary school the christian brother science teacher beat up 28 lads out of 31 lads at half nine in the morning because we were talking and he had a massive hangover. Went round the class one by one and 5 or 6 roundhouse slaps across the back of the head. The three he didn't beat up were sons of Gardai. I got the required 5 slaps but he cut me across my eye. Went home that evening and the ould lady asked where did i get the cut. Regaled the story, next morning the ould lad went into the science teachers class, put him up against the wall and he got the message i was not to be touched. The ould lad then went to the principals office and plainly said if i was ever hit he would take out retribution on the principal. For the next 6 years not one teacher touched me and i am eternally grateful to the ould lad for that.

Suffice to say the day i finished secondary school was one of the best days of my life. A horrible experience.

This was in the 90s? Holy Jesus that’s so recent! Clearly very serious issues in that school regarding staff discipline and training

....... · 19-02-2019 1:46pm

road_high wrote: »

This was in the 90s? Holy Jesus that’s so recent! Clearly very serious issues in that school regarding staff discipline and training

Although it was outlawed in 1982, a teacher couldnt be prosecuted for physical punishment until 1997 - so it carried on until then in a lot of schools.

retro:electro · 19-02-2019 1:46pm

....... wrote: »

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.

This has genuinely made me so mad. I hope the vile bitch is rotting.

road_high · 19-02-2019 1:48pm

What was their weird obsession with left handers? Was this another freaky Roman Catholic hang up?
What difference does it make what hand people wrote with? Some people are gay, straight, male, female, black, white, talk, small- just one of these things people can’t help.
The stories on corporal punishment and the Irish school system of the recent past could fill a thousand books and then some with what went on.

road_high · 19-02-2019 1:50pm

....... wrote: »

Although it was outlawed in 1982, a teacher couldnt be prosecuted for physical punishment until 1997 - so it carried on until then in a lot of schools.

Right I didn’t know that. That’s why that cow we had felt she could get away with it so. Always wondered that

Feisar · 19-02-2019 1:51pm

road_high wrote: »

What was their weird obsession with left handers? Was this another freaky Roman Catholic hang up?
What difference does it make what hand people wrote with? Some people are gay, straight, male, female, black, white, talk, small- just one of these things people can’t help.
The stories on corporal punishment and the Irish school system of the recent past could fill a thousand books and then some with what went on.

It's an ancient thing, the left hand was always considered bad/dirty. In some cultures you'd use the right hand to eat, the left to wipe.

It's about as Catholic as Halloween.

....... · 19-02-2019 1:51pm

retro:electro wrote: »

This has genuinely made me so mad. I hope the vile bitch is rotting.

Cheers - I hope so too, although she is probably still alive, she was only about 30 years or so older than me at the time, and nuns tend to longevity having not had the stresses of marriage/childbirth/raising a family/mortgage or financial worries.

I posted this story on a Facebook page for the school and a number of people had similar experiences but the admin closed the thread because it was felt it was speaking ill of the dead.

ollkiller · 19-02-2019 2:00pm

road_high wrote: »

This was in the 90s? Holy Jesus that’s so recent! Clearly very serious issues in that school regarding staff discipline and training

Aye, I finished in 97. It still went on for a few years after that.

razorblunt · 19-02-2019 2:02pm

I started primary in the early 90s and there was one teacher who was a bit fond of a clout across the back of the head or a dig in the back (similar to if you were choking and someone tried to dislodge whatever it was). He was a nice guy except for that though, one guy's Dad came in one day and told him in no uncertain circumstances to ever touch his child again though and that was the end of that ... somewhat.

Another teacher lost the rag with a lad one day and went to grab him, it was near the end of the school year so we just had shirts on so there was nothing much to grab, he ended up thumping the guy in the chest almost accidentally. Both of them were pretty shook, I think the teacher in fairness called down to the lads gaff to explain but, fcuk that was awkward for all to watch.

That's all I have!

I do remember my Mam telling stories of the horrors of the Nuns alright though, she'd have been in school in the late 60s. Apparently one nun in particular was a demon but my Mam being quiet never fell foul of her until one day she left her homework at home when she was 9. The Nun didnt hit her but went to town on her emotionally saying she's off to ring her Dad's work to tell her what has happened. My Mam was inconsolable. Eventually made it home and my Nan knew something was up and wasn't one for the "if the priest or nun says so it must be true" went down to the convent that afternoon and dragged the Nun out the door.

My Grandad, who was a strict man then heard the news when he got home that night and went down himself to do likewise. My Mam was afraid he wouldn't believe her but he was left handed so knew only too well of how cruel they could be.
The Nun didn't speak to her again.

road_high · 19-02-2019 2:05pm

ollkiller wrote: »

Aye, I finished in 97. It still went on for a few years after that.

I was in secondary school 95-01 and I think the country had moved into the modern era, there wasn’t any corporal punishment in my secondary school. In fact the pupil teacher relationship had moved onto mutual respect in so many ways in the school I was in, especially for leaving cert.
Primary was a lot more violent looking back.

road_high · 19-02-2019 2:08pm

The danger with being too heavy handed with those tyrants was they’d totally ignore your child’s eduction thereafter- they were that vindictive and petty...

road_high · 19-02-2019 2:20pm

Feisar wrote: »

It's an ancient thing, the left hand was always considered bad/dirty. In some cultures you'd use the right hand to eat, the left to wipe.

It's about as Catholic as Halloween.

When did that die out in schools? My sister is late 30s and left handed and don’t think she had any problems. Thankfully

valoren · 19-02-2019 2:22pm

road_high wrote: »

Right I didn’t know that. That’s why that cow we had felt she could get away with it so. Always wondered that

“He shall separate all nations one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left…then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

If you were on the left, you were a goat, a disbeliever and you went to Hell on Judgement Day. And so seeing that left-handedness was not as common, this must surely have been the work of the devil showing up in those who were left-handed. The above is from the book of Matthew and as it's from the Bible we surmise that it's a load of bollix basically. In effect, it just provided an excuse to hit school kids.

demanufactured · 19-02-2019 2:23pm

road_high wrote: »

Right I didn’t know that. That’s why that cow we had felt she could get away with it so. Always wondered that

I went to secondary in the mid 90s, you could still see it in some teachers.
If a teach had ever have lain a hand on me, I'd have battered them, no question.
It happened once with a teacher known to love whiskey.
He had a go at a fairly meek looking lad, who didn't have the strength to manage metalwork.

His bigger classmate saw what was gapoening and clattered the teacher with a metal file, sent him flying over the desk, your man was a big country lad who didn't like bullies.
The teacher never went near anyone in that class again.

EdgeCase · 19-02-2019 2:24pm

Such a screwed up society when you look back on it. They had the population so cowed that they never seemed to question what was going on.

road_high · 19-02-2019 2:31pm

EdgeCase wrote: »

Such a screwed up society when you look back on it. They had the population so cowed that they never seemed to question what was going on.

I think society was very very harsh back then- how it treated anyone only slightly outside the “norm” was truly awful.
Just look back at the 8th Amendment insertion in 1983 vs the tone of compassion that took over the recent debate and referendum.
People willingly disowned family members because they had a child outside of marriage or were gay.
This was either a product or a manifestation of our equally harsh school systems. By the late 80/90s this world view was beginning to become outdated, people no longer accepted this carry on as normal.

BeerWolf · 19-02-2019 2:48pm

In my earlier years I grew up in Malaysia. One of the schools I went to had a sadistic teacher that most likely derived pleasure from hurting her students, from whacking the edge of a ruler across the back of stretched out fingers to pinching ear lobes with her long nails making this "NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIII!!!!" sound, sometimes drawing out blood..

Swear to God if I saw that bitch again, don't care if she's elderly now I'd knock the daylights out of her.

Hoofball · 19-02-2019 2:52pm

I was in primary in the 70's in a fairly decent school so not too bad. Got the metre stick across the palm of the hands for messing in the yard when I was 6, can still remember it over 40 years later. Would get rapped on the knuckles or the head by one of the thin metre sticks regularly by another guy as I couldn't read the blackboard (got glasses the following year) and he was fond of flinging the wooden dusters at full force at 7/8 year olds. Both of them were christian brothers.

Was in secondary school in the 80's and it was the lay teachers that had the problems. One guy was into psychological torture, keeping students up at the top of the class and interrogating them for hours at a time purely to embarrass them and belittle them - that was horrendous to experience both as the recipient and from watching it. The only thing that helped is that the class all stuck together as a group and no-one ever took the p*ss out of anyone that got that treatment. A couple of the other teachers would fling dusters/chalk/pens/books or anything else to hand full force at your head or cliing kids up against the board.

Would never tar all of the teachers with the same brush though, had some great teachers as well. As with any walk of life or section of society you will always get some bad apples. It was just unfortunate that those assholes had control over defenseless kids from 5 year olds upward.

EdgeCase · 19-02-2019 3:03pm

To be honest, I would tar them or certainly their collective profession with the same brush along with the government bodies and ministers who stood by as it was going on.

Even the good ones knew what was going on. They could
have gone on strike over it for example. The politicians were quite happy to turn a blind eye to all sorts of abuses that were going on in plain sight for decades and were just accepted as normal.

Considering for example school kids of the mid 20th century lived in terror of being sent to Artane. My grandmother took on a guy who'd been in Artane as a shop assistant in the 1960s and she was absolutely horrified at what he'd been though when he told her that whole story.

He'd dipped a paper aeroplane into an inkwell and thrown it across the class. The teacher dragged him out beat him up and he was sent off to Artane where he was badly abused until he was released and went job hunting.

The guy was a nervous wreck and had twitches and everything due to the ordeal.

My grandparents more or less worked on trying to rebuild his self confidence and got him to do some night classes in the tech while working in the shop during the day.

She made representations about what had happened and wrote to TDs, ministers, bishops and all she ever got was polite replies.

road_high · 19-02-2019 3:07pm

EdgeCase wrote: »

To be honest, I would tar them or certainly their collective profession with the same brush along with the government bodies and ministers who stood by as it was going on.

Even the good ones knew what was going on. They could
have gone on strike over it for example. The politicians were quite happy to turn a blind eye to all sorts of abuses that were going on in plain sight for decades and were just accepted as normal.

Considering for example school kids of the mid 20th century lived in terror of being sent to Artane. My grandmother took on a guy who'd been in Artane as a shop assistant in the 1960s and she was absolutely horrified at what he'd been though when he told her that whole story.

He'd dipped a paper aeroplane into an inkwell and thrown it across the class. The teacher dragged him out beat him up and he was sent off to Artane where he was badly abused until he was released and went job hunting.

The guy was a nervous wreck and had twitches and everything due to the ordeal.

My grandparents more or less worked on trying to rebuild his self confidence and got him to do some night classes in the tech while working in the shop during the day.

She made representations about what had happened and wrote to TDs, ministers, bishops and all she ever got was polite replies.

The cruelty and harshness of the time was jaw dropping alright. You can multiply that story by tens of thousands

Deebles McBeebles · 19-02-2019 3:07pm

I often wonder if it really has died out in all corners of the country. I saw a Christian Brother slap a guy full force across the face in the late 90's. Far as I know nothing was done and he definitely did not lose his job.

Subacio · 19-02-2019 3:08pm

I was educated by the Franciscan Brothers in primary school and Christian Brothers in secondary.

The Franciscan "uniform" of flowing brown robe tied with a knotted white rope gave one brother a ready made whip to lash anyone he felt deserved it. He sent one boy (aged 10 or 11) flying through two rows of desks with a punch to the upper arm one day.

At least his abuse wasn't sexual. Another brother a few years ahead of our class cornered that particular market.

The Christian Brothers were choirboys compared to the Franciscans, in my experience.

EdgeCase · 19-02-2019 3:11pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

I often wonder if it really has died out in all corners of the country. I saw a Christian Brother slap a guy full force across the face in the late 90's. Far as I know nothing was done and he definitely did not lose his job.

There are absolutely no excuses anymore. If you hit a kid as a teacher or even as a parent you can be charged with assault.

gozunda · 19-02-2019 3:20pm

SlowBlowin wrote: »

Offended again, how does more = only, pretty much the opposite meaning ?

Are you offended? Well that's how it was. Btw c you stick to the discussion and maybe not try to be pedantic or whatever? That would be great.

Aglomerado · 19-02-2019 3:20pm

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.

Deebles McBeebles · 19-02-2019 3:34pm

EdgeCase wrote: »

There are absolutely no excuses anymore. If you hit a kid as a teacher or even as a parent you can be charged with assault.

It was, at the very least, frowned upon in the late 90's too but this guy seemed to get away with it. Only incident like it I've ever seen in my time in school so it wasn't exactly common place.

EdgeCase · 19-02-2019 4:10pm

We were quite a while behind Poland where it was outlawed in 1783. However, corporal punishment is very much a legacy you find in the former British Empire. It was a big part of British culture in the 19th and 20th century too.

It was outlawed in state schools in the UK in 1987 and 1998 in private schools.

It's illegal in all EU States and even was in banned in the Soviet Union to the point that soviet official were horrified when visiting English speaking western schools and seeing corporal punishment being used in the 60s. In most continental countries there wasn't any real history of it in modern times.

It was abolished in any school receiving any state funding here in 1982 and became a criminal offence in 1997. That was expanded to include parents using corporal punishment in 2015. So you can now be charged with assault for slapping someone.

What shocked me is it's still legal and actively used in much of the US southern states.

retro:electro · 19-02-2019 4:16pm

gozunda wrote: »

Are you offended? Well that's how it was. Btw c you stick to the discussion and maybe not try to be pedantic or whatever? That would be great.

You picking out one sentence from my post and splitting hairs over something that wasn’t even said is the very definition of being pedantic. But sure it wouldn’t be like you.. You must be starved for attention.
Anyway, moving on.

freshpopcorn · 19-02-2019 4:25pm

Shur I even remember teachers in the 2000's having to hold themselves back from hitting people. Some would have used it in the past.
They generally had no class room control, read directly out of the book but it was always the students fault. Other teachers didn't have much of an issue tough.

SlowBlowin · 19-02-2019 4:34pm

I heard stories in the media some time back of a family who would take the train across the England/Scotland border so they could smack the kids legally.

....... · 19-02-2019 4:41pm

Aglomerado wrote: »

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.

In my primary school (the one after the religious orders school) there was a male teacher who would allow a favoured child to run to the shops to buy him a packet of ham to make sandwiches for his lunch and as a special "treat" the child could hand feed him a few bits of ham at his desk - while sitting on his knee.

Dirty old bollox, his family all still live in the area, Im sure they are ashamed when they see comments on Facebook and the like about it.

freshpopcorn · 19-02-2019 4:41pm

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

ohnonotgmail · 19-02-2019 4:46pm

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.

Edgware · 19-02-2019 4:53pm

We used get a regular few clouts up to Inter cert year in a Patrician brothers school. When a certain non religious order teacher tried it when we came into fourth year we all walked out.
The Principal bolloxed us all out of it but your man never hit us again. On our last day we let the air out of two of his tyres anyway just as a going away present.
On the other side of the coin we had an old brother who wasnt up to beating someone so he'd tell another few pupils to give the lad a few digs. Great fun as long as it wasnt you that the pack descended on

Flaccus · 19-02-2019 4:57pm

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.

gozunda · 19-02-2019 4:58pm

retro:electro wrote: »

You picking out one sentence from my post and splitting hairs over something that wasn’t even said is the very definition of being pedantic. But sure it wouldn’t be like you.. You must be starved for attention.Anyway, moving on.

Why always the narky style comments? I supposed I'd get upset only I'm laughing so much as they are very funny ...

Sorry I thought you already made a comment? And now another! You do know that this was in reply to another posters comment yeah?.

Anyway completely incorrect - and I already gathered from that you didn't understand the first comment and I didn't bother replying - but there go. Not to make a dig out of it lol....

uch · 19-02-2019 5:00pm

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.

retro:electro · 19-02-2019 5:03pm

gozunda wrote: »

Why always the snarky style comments? I get upset only I'm laughing so much as they are funny ...

Sorry I thought you already made a comment? You do know that was in reply to another posters comment yeah?. Anyway completely incorrect - and I already gathered from that you didn't understand the first comment and I didn't bother replying - but there go. Not to make a dig out of it lol....

Is this English? I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Can you stop clogging the thread with your nonsense?

Rubberchikken · 19-02-2019 5:06pm

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.

Edgware · 19-02-2019 5:06pm

retro:electro wrote: »

Is this English? I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Can you stop clogging the thread with your nonsense?

Its no wonder the teacher hit him a few slaps. I feel like kicking him around the room just reading the ****e he posts

Memories of corporal punishment

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