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

There was a lot of smacking - with hands, rulers, board rubbers - at my small country primary, run by 3 female teachers. One child had his hand slammed in a stapler, some were locked in cupboards. There was an awful ritual on a Friday pm where we all lined up around the hall and were asked spelling and times table questions, moving up if we got one right, the bottom five being slapped mercilessly. Oddly enough the same five every week . A mother once rampaged into school at lunchtime after hearing her son being beaten from the bus stop outside - she slapped the head teacher repeatedly round the head and we all felt like cheering (but didn't dare). One good outcome for me was that I went for someone bullying a younger child and bust his nose, and nobody said a word....

When I went to grammar school, with its lines and sarky comments, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Had a spelling test pinned to my back all day because i had got most wrong. Age 5, just started school.

When I was at school, some of the teachers were so deeply unpleasant I wonder why on earth they chose the profession as they seemed to hate children! When I was about 5 and not long started school (be around 1955) my parents were heavy drinkers and argued a lot so even though I was unhappy in school, going home after school wasn't something I looked forward to, either!

One afternoon after school, I walked through the park which was at the back of the school and played on the swings for a bit before the long walk home (probably about 3 miles). Next day, the headmistress (a real battle axe) called me to the front of the class and asked why I didn't go home straight away the previous afternoon (she must have seen me on the swing). I can't remember what I answered but it couldn't have been cheeky as I was a meek little thing. Anyway, she belted me over the hands with the ruler.

Throughout my school days, I met good teachers and bad teachers. English I was good at because the teacher was kind and I wanted to please her. Maths I was bad at because I was terrified of the teacher who seemed to enjoy mocking me and the clothes I wore (drinking parents spent money on drink, not nice clothes for their kids).

I have never been an assertive person and never wanted to push myself forward as I don't want to fail.

Teachers can make or break a child's self-confidence for life.

I`ve had a really enjoyable afternoon reading all these things teachers did to us at school. I wonder how many would have been done for child abuse. I do remember one time in Junior school I was called out in class for playing solitaire not reading my catechism (catholic School). MY teacher then decided to shake me will telling me off. I fainted then got my own back as the teacher picked me up I kicked him in the face.

Smacked my legs because I only managed 3/20 in spelling tests.

In primary school I got the ruler for 'joining my ds' as I ha been told to at the end of my work. I should have been listening.

In secondary school, my friend and I went back to our form room to get our library book to change. The short, florid, smelly breathed Latin teacher saw us and locked us in. ( Health and safety or what as the windows did not open far). We missed dinner and when I asked for a refund the next week, I got short shrift.

My teacher a nun used to hit us, shake us and generally smack us about. One day she went into the store cupboard and returned with a cane. She swished it about and said that she could use this whenever she liked. Quite honestly no-one was that bothered as we were used to daily violence. The head had a cane and a slipper although luckily this was only hearsay for me.

I recall that when I started teaching in1959, the deputy- head gave me an address of a place in Scotland, from where, and at a cost of 1/9p , I should order a "cane". As I had been caned myself when in junior school ( this is another story!) I was reluctant to do this and managed my class without the aforementioned item. Good Old Days or what?

I was interviewed for my first teaching job before corporal punishment was finally outlawed. One of the questions was, 'Where do you stand on administering the strap?' I said I wouldn't do it. (I wasn't that desperate for the job although I didn't say that!) I got the job anyway.

I remember a teacher shaking me so hard my teeth rattled in the back of my head. I was only about 7 at the time and really thought she was trying to kill me. my sin? I was singing out of tune, after that I was made to stand at the back and mime. I am now 63 and to this day I still cannot sing out loud I have to mime

Our sports field was just over a mile away as the crow flies but we we were made to run in our p.e skirts along the beach( which added another 1/4 of a mile) even in the worst storms the Scottish winter could throw at us whilst our very very chubby P.E mistress drove past us in her nice warm car ! but it was character building and none of us died.

When I left school at 17, as 'dux' of the school, with a shedload of prizes, one of my former infant school teachers remarked that she'd 'never have thought it' of me. No congratulations, of course! Words failed me.

The teacher that hit me Lupin was a woman, but reading through the posts they were all much of a muchness, at least I can spell saucer now!

I think I was lucky as I only had female teachers and mostly not violent. I did get the cane twice in primary school though, for fairly minor offences : walking on coke (for the boiler) in the playgraound , which was forbidden and calling a boy names (along with others. )
At my girls grammar school iI was in the 4th maths set(never liked maths) and so not allowed to take GCE maths. However i was put in for Certificate of proficiency in arithmetic . When I passed I was told it was a fluke!!!!
Incidentally in my 30s I went to evening classes in maths and took GCE O level and got a grade A. Wish I could have told her!!

Don't apply for medical school if you think you're good looking! They only take plain girls as the others will marry and waste their training!

No bad things happened to us, but one remark has stuck with me,we all loved Enid Blyton books, growing up in the fifties, and when we were reviewing books during a lesson, we were told we should never read Enid Blyton, but the classics instead. After that we always had a guilty conscience when reading the Famous Five books. I wonder if this was snobbery, or what was the reason, kids still love Enid Blyton, I think.

A retired teacher, I am told by ex pupils that I am fondly remembered as the teacher who told her class of 8 year olds that the next person who asked to go to the toilet, would be required to do it in the waste paper bin. I can only imagine what would happen if I said that these days.

I can certainly remember having the cane(six of the best)

My parents never knew about anything that went on at school, wait till your Father gets home, was enough to keep us quite about anything.

I remember a particular teacher, who would always tell me off for leaving too bigger gap between my written words and that I should use my index finger to measure the spacing. When I tried to demonstrate that I had a finger width between my words she would slap my hand away and tell me not to "answer back" I did have wide fingers, hers were like skinny witches fingers with nasty nicotine stained, claw like nails.
Oh how I hated that woman!

When I was 8/9, the nun who taught me piano would rap me over the knuckles with a conductor's baton - this was in the 1940s!!

l was knocked out cold by a Rounders Ball & when I came to in medical room my finger nails had all been cut. Deputy head said they were too long (just showing white above finger tip- not long at all). They were all ragged & one finger was bleeding.
My Mother was up to the school like a shot the next day & obtained an abject apology when she threatened to call the police for assault. Not the first or last time she had to go to the school by any means.
She was even more furious about the fact they had taken the time to cut my nails but not called an ambulance. I had one hellava bruise on my forehead for days.
One of many times my Mum ( & many other parents)had a set to with this vile woman!We were all terrified of her.She did pick on me as she was my Maths teacher & I was useless at maths- still am- they call is being discalculate or number blindness or something now days I believe.My elder son also has it.

I recognise it to an extent. The gym mistress sounds positively sadistic. The nuns used a form of psychological bullying at times but on the whole they were fine, even kind. If they were cross with you they always used your first and second names to address you, and often made you stand at the back for the rest of the lesson. They also addressed you as child, even if you were taller and bigger than they were.

We had a gym mistress who was a sadist. If you admitted to being afraid of water she made you jump from the top diving board. If you wouldn't do it she sent another girl up to push you off. If you were incompetent in the gym she would sit you on a top bar and tell everyone for about 15 minutes how stupid you were. I'm still afraid of water. If you made a mistake in the French lesson, another teacher (a nun) would stand you up and tell you all your faults for the whole lesson. It happened to several girls as well as me. A Catholic convent school, no less, to which I had won two scholarships! Anyone recognise this?

Aged 4 1/2 and new at primary school I desperately needed the loo. When I asked if i could "be excused" I was told crossly to go back and sit down. The inevitable happened and I got told off. When I said I had earlier asked to go, I was then told not to answer back! Couldn't win.

trisher, your post reminds me of my headmaster in the junior school, Mr. Payne, (name and shame) we used to have to go and see him occasionally to read. We had to stand next to him and he would put his hand up my skirt,inside my knicker legs and rub my behind and all down the legs. He did it to several of us. I told my mum but she just laughed.