On 11/05/2018 12:09, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:

If the teacher felt that they were being cheeky (what he called
'insubordinate') he would generally deal with them appropriately.

Appropriate is subjective.* I had teachers that yelled, teachers that
struck with metre sticks, and one who regretted yelling when a boy
punched him in the stomach sending him sprawling across the floor.


I used to find assembly amusing. First we would be told about
Christian forgiveness, then the names of those who must report to the
headmaster's office would be read out. I never imagined that they would
be there so he could forgive them...

My life was changed for ever one day in 1964. I wanted to leave school
and go to a tech college, in order to eventually get a job in
electronics or broadcast. In order to do this I needed documentation
from the school head. I knew he would be displeased because if I left it
would be one less in the GCE class, of which he was very proud. I
knocked and waited, but there was no reply. Then from within I heard the
sounds of an almighty beating. The repeated swish-crack of the Head's
notorious cane; shrieks of pain, sobs, pleas for mercy. My nerve was
gone and I slunk away. I never returned to that door. I didn't transfer
to the tech. I stayed on at school, and eventually became a teacher. Had
I approached the Head's door at any other time I would had had a
different life thereafter.

Bill