The state of the UK

[NineBerry]

We use a software component by Gemalto at work. It's crap.

[Scot Dutchy]

When you were at school you had to scratch your tables on a slate.

We used slates in primary school and we were also regularly belted with the tawes.



We were not even 11 but it was a daily occurrence.

[Sean Hayden]

Being paddled was a surreal experience. Only the principal was allowed, so it was probably the first time any of us encountered punishment without an emotional component.

--right, so I'm going to paddle you now...ok

[Scot Dutchy]

Everybody belted us even the bloody janitor. Teachers used to send the whole class to be belted by the gym teacher. Nobody said anything. Corporal punishment was still given out by the law courts. As if it helped. Violence was ever present in society.

[Sean Hayden]

--pathetic really. I'd have quit.

[Scot Dutchy]

--pathetic really. I'd have quit.

Quit what? All schools were the same. Good Calvinistic methods: "Spare the rod spoil the child". We never got spoilt. It backfired completely of course as you just got hardened and "six of the best" meant little.

[Sean Hayden]

School obviously, plenty must have stopped going.

[Scot Dutchy]

School obviously, plenty must have stopped going.

Why? You had to attend. There was no options. It was accepted as being normal. This was the 50's.

[Sean Hayden]

Okay, so what was the drop out rate in the 50s compared to today? I'm guessing it was higher then. But maybe not, it may be one of those counter intuitive situations.

The worst treatment I ever saw in school was at the hands of other students in military school. That was a nasty wake-up call. I'm not bitter about it though, and perhaps perversely, I am even happy to have learned so much about people so young, and to have the experience to mine for insights even today.

[pErvinalia]

I got belted a few times. I'm glad I did or i'd be woke today!

[JimC]

We had the cane at my school, not that I ever got it, because I was a goody-goody!

[pErvinalia]

Chumocracy!

[Brian Peacock]

At my school I saw children dragged from their desks by their hair. Objects to hand, like chalk, board rubbers, and once a teacher's lit pipe (teachers smoked in class), were regularly thrown at kids - some teachers had a reputation as a good shot. Other teachers would make you stand on one leg for the rest of the lesson - which I believe is called a 'stress position' today, and amounts to a form of torture - and then you'd probably get the cane. Caning was commonplace. I saw one teacher break up a playground fight between two boys by punching each pugilist in the head, knocking them both to the ground. They were then hauled off on tip toes by the short hairs at their temples to be caned. I guess for most of us this kind of 'discipline' was the same as we got at home. Child protection hadn't been invented then of course.

[Seabass]

[Scot Dutchy]

At my school I saw children dragged from their desks by their hair. Objects to hand, like chalk, board rubbers, and once a teacher's lit pipe (teachers smoked in class), were regularly thrown at kids - some teachers had a reputation as a good shot. Other teachers would make you stand on one leg for the rest of the lesson - which I believe is called a 'stress position' today, and amounts to a form of torture - and then you'd probably get the cane. Caning was commonplace. I saw one teacher break up a playground fight between two boys by punching each pugilist in the head, knocking them both to the ground. They were then hauled off on tip toes by the short hairs at their temples to be caned. I guess for most of us this kind of 'discipline' was the same as we got at home. Child protection hadn't been invented then of course.

We used to talk about discipline at home and some kids really suffered and had the bruises and scars to prove it. Of course the teachers did nothing about it. Sexual abuse was rife then as well but it was considered normal. Bullying was never addressed either. That was one bloody awful decade. The 60's changed everything.