Discipline and Detention: Looking Back at School in the 1950s
My husband and I had an unusual experience this week. We visited his old school, along with about 60 other men in their 60s and above. There were also a few other wives. Let me explain why we were there, and the impact of the visit.
New Use of School Premises
In the early 1950s, he went to a boys’ grammar school. In the UK, this is a state high school for boys aged 11 and over. It was located in the extensive docks area near Tower Bridge in the East End of London. Most of the boys were from local working class families, but the school had a good reputation and they studied hard.
In the late 1960s, the school re-located to another part of London and the premises were used for various other educational purposes. It eventually fell into dereliction. The area, in the meantime, changed beyond all recognition and is now full of restaurants and office buildings spilling over from the business district in the City of London.
A few years ago, the school building was bought by an Indian luxury hotel chain called the Lalit. It was given a complete makeover and is opening for business shortly. As part of the hotel opening, all alumni of the school and their wives were invited to a reception to see how it had changed. We were feted with champagne and taken around the building.
The old assembly hall had become an elegant dining room and the ordinary school rooms had become well appointed guest rooms. There were also the usual places associated with a hotel, including reception rooms, a bar and so forth. Everyone agreed that the renovation had been an excellent job. It was splendid to see.
Memories
While we trooped around the premises, the men exclaimed about the changes of use. They said things like “This used to be the physics lab!” and exchanged memories of being there.
There were memories of sports events, exams, the way assembly was run, particular teachers and eccentric classmates. Conversations started with “Do you remember…?”
But by far the most common memory was of having been caned by the headmaster. This is known in England as “six of the best.” One man remembered a stool he had to hold onto while he bent over to be thrashed. Another, presumably a bit of a tear-away, proudly claimed to have had over 150 lashings over his time at the school.
My husband said that he had had only one caning, for admitting that he had taken a second pudding, or dessert in American English, at lunch. He had not been the only boy to do so – just the only one to admit it.
Nobody remembered the head with any affection.
Women’s Memories
An equivalent group of women of a similar age, wherever they are in the world, are likely to have very different memories of school. Punishments might still be a strong component. Indeed, it brought back my own memories. I was generally a very well behaved little girl, but I still remember being called in to a head teacher when I was about eight for loudly singing the well-known Christmas carol about three kings in its inappropriate form. The words included something about a rubber cigar.
We girls were beaten much less frequently than boys, I am sure. However, we were told off, given detention and generally forced to undergo some unpleasant activity in an effort to make us behave. And corporal punishment continued in some places for a long time, as my daughter-in-law, who left her school in a small town in Louisiana in the 1980s, informs me.
These memories sit in the back of our heads, rarely aired. But when they come out, they are very strong.
What are your memories of school? Were you ever punished? What form did it take? How do you think this shaped your attitudes toward discipline in schools? Please join the conversation.
Tags Nostalgia
I went to a mixed grammar school where there was corporal punishment, which was mainly the slipper, although the cane was sometimes used on both boys and (very occasionally) girls. It was boys who usually got the slipper in class (to the amusement of the girls) but on this particular occasion the teacher was away sick (I think) and the class was running riot, having been left to our own devices. There was a lot of noise and several of us were standing up and talking.
I was talking to my girlfriend at the time, a pretty girl called Rosie. We weren’t honestly contributing to the noise level more than anybody else but we were caught when Miss Bowden came in and read the riot act.
This was unlucky for us because Miss Bowden was the games and gym teacher for the girls and was certainly not adverse to using the slipper. In fact Rosie had told me of how she and other girls had suffered under Miss Bowden’s ministrations. The class was silent as the teacher ordered each of us who was standing up to face the blackboard while she told everyone else to get a book out and study. I glanced sideways and there were four boys and three girls standing. We were obviously going to be made an example of.
After what seemed an age there was a stirred of interest in the class as Miss Bowden reached into her bag and brought out a gym slipper. She quickly quieted the class by saying anyone who talked would be out the front as well. Anyway she pointed to the first boy, who’s name I think was Tom, and told him to bend over the front desk. Tom did so and received four almighty whacks on his behind. Miss Bowden was a very athletic lady!
Tom went back to his place fighting back tears and it was the turn of the first girl, Sally. If we thought Miss B might be soft on girls we were mistaken as she let fly with four equally hard whacks which made Sally squeal. By the time she got up she was in tears but Miss B had no sympathy but merely pointed her to her seat, which she sat in very gingerly and covered her face.
Another boy was whacked and he obviously had a job getting through it without tears and I was getting worried, as Miss B was getting a head of steam up! Poor Rosie was next and her bum made a perfect target which the teacher exploited with four expert and well delivered whacks which made Rosie yell. She actually kicked her legs in the air at the last one and was in floods of tears as she returned to her seat. I wanted to put my arms round her but unfortunately it was my turn!
I bent over the desk and boy, did Miss B know how to whack! I caught my breath for the first one and had to grit my teeth as the sweat poured off me. I did manage to avoid crying out loud but my eyes were full of tears by the time she finished and my bottom resembled a volcano. I tried to get back to my seat, resisting the temptation to rub, but it was difficult and sitting down was agony.
We watched the other two kids get their punishment – roughly the same as before – to the amusement of the class, but not us who had actually felt it. Afterwards the girls were all crying softly and the boys trying to be brave but we had all felt it big time. Miss Bowden then put the slipper on the table and said she was quite prepared to use it again if there was a squeak out of any of us.
As can be imagined there was no squeak! Rosie and I consoled each other afterwards, feeling somewhat hard done by. We did have a date that evening which had been pre-arranged, but we felt it was better to go for a walk than anything which involved sitting down!