What your teacher said to you that they wouldn't get away with now.

PE teacher pushed me in the pool when we went for a swimming lesson, I was standing on the edge and not expecting it, I have never been confident or enjoyed the water since, although I did learn to swim, I do not really enjoy it.

Hilltopgran - did you go to school in Brentwood? We had an outdoor swimming pool at school and of course the water was so cold. The teacher used to walk along the line of us who were dithering at the edge of the pool, and push us in!
I loved swimming but never liked or mastered diving in.

My first infant school teacher smacked me across the knuckles with a ruler for holding my pencil case between my hands during prayers. Another one hit me over the head for not sitting cross legged properly - I've never been flexible and couldn't sit like that even as a child. My husband was in my class at school and we had one particular English teacher who hated the sight of him and vice versa - when we were about 14 he manhandled him out of the classroom and tried to hit him - sad to say my other half hit him back - the fact that he wasn't expelled probably says a lot! When I think back there were quite a few of our teachers who were either cuttingly sarcastic or threw things at people - some were very nice but my early recollections are not pleasant.

This comment is slightly off piste. There was a boy in my Primary school who was unkind to me and when I complained to my mother she said I had to learn to stand up for myself. So the next time he caused trouble I picked up one of those small wooden chairs we used to sit on and hit him over the head. I was not a violent child until that moment.

My mother was sent for and there was a big hooha. The boy was the son on the local MP Gerald Nabarro.

I have never hit anyone since.

I hated school. We would have the cane on our hands and it really used to hurt. Or they would slap you on the back of the legs. The worst thing was making you feel small in front of the class, if you couldn't understand something immediately. I have numeracy dixlexia and anything with figures was a nightmare. The happiest day of my life was the day I left school. It was GCE's in my days, and when somehow I managed to pass in 4 out of 5 I was told it was a miracle, and that the marks must have been very low on that day. Never any encouragement or praise. I made sure when my children went to school that things were different and they were treated like human beings.

Nasty head teacher of my head teacher.
I had fallen off jungle Jim in the playground and had gone face first causing a huge scab under my nose , my dad tried to "help" by soaking and removing huge scab and making it worse in progress.
During show and tell in assembly she grabbed my hair and pulled my head back saying to the whole assembly "Don't talk to this girl she picks her nose" her name was Mrs pratt ...

That was my infants school..I was 5

I went to an RC Primary School and one day in church I started a bad coughing fit. I think I was allergic to incense because it had happened before. My teacher a nun, was sitting behind me and she thumped me in the back and said "will you stop that stupid coughing." No offer of a drink of water or suggesting i go outside. She thumped me so hard,I just missed banging my head on the pew in front. Can't remember the end of the story but I guess I did stop the "stupid coughing."

I remember being slapped on the back of the legs with a ruler when I was learning to read, because I could not remember the word "saucer". We also had a rubber thrower and one teacher would belittle you in front of the class.

DH went to a series of private schools. He was pushed in the swimming pool to make him swim (gave him a fear of water, although he did learn to swim as an adult)and regularly had chalk and board rubbers thrown at him.
I got off quite lightly, although my top Junior teacher told my parents 'Your daughter and I disliked each other on sight and there is nothing I can do about it.'

I was never an athletic child, but did like tennis. One afternoon I fell during a hockey session and badly hurt my wrist, and couldn't fasten my blouse buttons when getting changed. Our PE teacher, Prussian, Miss Luks, (sp) pooh poohed me and said in so many words, not to be a wimp. After a long, painful night my mum took me to A&E where it was discovered that I had broken my wrist. I did learn to write left handed ?

I had a primary school teacher who made miscreants kneel on a pencil

OH had a primary teacher, a nun, who made children kneel in salt

Back in the 80s, one of my colleague's pupils turned up with a diamond type earring, and she called him a big girl's blouse! Wouldn't get away with that today.

When I was at school we used have practice showers after PE - all the nudity, no water. Makes you wonder!

I learnt neat handwriting with the 'help' of a ruler in first year juniors. If our writing wasn't correct, the ruler would descend on our knuckles and we had to repeat the work until it was acceptable. Even now, if I'm handwriting something I use a fountain pen because I can guarantee it will be neat.

My Primary school teacher (for 4 years) used to tell us all to stand on our chairs and then walk round the class hitting selected children on the shins with a ruler.
She was only a young woman so I can only assume that she went into teaching because so few careers were open to women in the early 50s. She clearly didn't enjoy it!

At Primary school I was pushed into the swimming pool - I had not yet learned to swim - aged about eight, and slapped for making a design on a slate board with chalks. This effort didn't suit the teacher, so she hit me. My OH, aged five, went to ask his teacher for another sheet of paper and was struck violently across the face; evidently this man was on the edge of a breakdown, and no action was taken. It was all fairly lively in schools back in the fifties. An elderly Uncle said it was not unusual for the boys to be horsewhipped when he was educated in the early part of the 20C. However, for all this violence his generation left school at fifteen articulate, numerate, with beautiful handwriting and often able to write shorthand. Every cloud...

In primary school we had tracing paper hung on a hook on the wall and when I was about 8 I accidentally tore a piece. We had a horrible teacher (she only lasted a term - I wonder how else she blotted her copybook!) who hit me on the leg with a ruler for that infringement. I loved my primary school, but that unfairness incident still rankles in my memory.

I was taken into school at 4 because they needed my mother to teach at the Poor School up the road. On Monday mornings we were asked who hadn't gone to Mass on Sunday and anyone foolish enough to admit it got slapped on the face. We also got a slap on our legs if we came to school without a handkerchief in our knickers pocket. Some teachers didn't employ cruel methods and we would have a happy year but others were downright cruel and a boy in my class had a finger in his hand broken when Teacher hit him with the edge of the ruler. I remember all their names 70 years later.

In secondary school there were rubber throwers, but my worst teacher was when I was in the top year of junior school. She admitted to my Mum at the end of the year that she'd just taken a dislike to me. She would make me stand on a chair and make all the children point at me and laugh if I ever got anything wrong. There was one occasion when a boy had been naughty and was sent to sit alone at the side of the room, near the window. After a while he complained that there were bees coming in the window and scaring him, so she sent him back to his chair and made me sit there. Vile woman. The very worst thing though was that early in the year my Mum did go to see her because I'd said she was picking on me, but teacher told her it was nonsense. So after that, whenever I was upset about going to school, sometimes even vomiting from fear, I would then get a slap from Mum for lying, because teachers didn't lie! I really hope teachers aren't able to treat children like THAT any more.

On the positive side I had an English teacher who taught me the joy of reading which has stayed with me all my life. I have a theory that the sadistic, sarcastic teachers were all ex-forces (bearing in mind when us Boomers were at school) who treated the children as their squaddies.

My PE teacher at primary hated me because I got her into trouble with the head.

We had been doing high jump and my friend landed really heavily on her back winding herself. She was gasping for breath but the biatch screamed at her to get up. I ran over (and was screamed at for doing so) and could see she wasn't well as could another boy who had also defied her to check. As she wasn't going to do anything I ran at full pelt to the headmasters office and blurted that the girl couldn't breath and would DIE if he didn't come RIGHT NOW!

He literally ran all the way to the hall to see my friend and the other lad still on the mat and her sitting on her lardy backside scowling at the rest of the class. The headmaster checked my friend was ok then bellowed at the top of his voice that she get her backside into his office NOW.

After that she took every opportunity to make my life hell till I left for high school. I missed getting my Gymnastic badge (grade 3) because of her. Hope she rots in hell...

Had another headmistress throw a wooden blackboard wipe at the boy behind for speaking in class - though her aim was off and smacked me in the face resulting in blood everywhere as the edge of it pierced my face. She did look utterly mortified right enough.

At high school was vaulting a horse which had been getting progressively higher during the class and were down to the last 3 people to get over that height. Deputy head came in saying there was a phone call for the PE teacher so he left. dHead looked at the height of the horse and looked at me (i was small) waiting to go. He decided it was "much too high" and lowered it to its lowest level. I ran up, bounced on the springboard....didn't even touch the horse but sailed about a metre above it, across the mat and whacked into the floor. Proceeded to slide into a wall at speed and came to a halt there.

"Oh dear" he said "maybe I shouldn't have done that"

YOU THINK!?!!

One of my teachers in junior school, hit me round the head so hard, my glasses flew off. My friend who went home for lunch, told her mum, who told mine. At the begining of the afternoon session my mum bust into the class, grabbed him and hit him round the head. When I left that school I heard that he had gone to prison for assault on a child.

I can remember being slapped across the back of the legs for getting my sums wrong, and seeing others getting the ruler or cane across the palm of their hands. It was always one particular male teacher who wielded the cane. He also threw the wooden blackboard rubber at you if you got one of his mental arithmetic questions wrong. I just learned to duck quickly.We accepted it - we were post war children in very large classes of 40 plus - not that I'm advocating his methods.
I have never forgotten him humiliating me in front of the class because I passed the eleven plus and he said I didn't deserve it - I was lazy - and that my place should have gone to another child. It was worse than getting a slap when I thought I'd done something right for once! I switched off from that moment until I left the school, and wouldn't pay him any attention. What used to be called dumb insolence. He didn't react, and I stewed in my own juice.
I wonder if we went to the same school MaggieMay?

I was at a girls grammar school in the late 50s and had an absolutely terrifying physics teacher. One day she demanded to know why my hair was loose and said if .i came to school with it loose again she would tie it back with string! It sounds trivial now but I was petrified.