'When did you first realise that you were 'different'?'

I think in those times it was fairly general that we would be 'pulled up' for not following the 'standard' writing of the policy of the school.

Contrariwise to your teacher, we were made to write the three with a flat top.  And also the four with an 'open' top, not making a triangle.  A nine had to have a vertical line below the circle, not one at an angle. A '1' would have to be a straight vertical line.  A '2' would be outlawed if it had a 'curly' bottom.  A '6' conversely to the '9' had to have an angled line. There was no room for individualism at all.   Punishment was handed out for offending, such as being rapped over the knuckles with the ruler, or smacked on the legs (boys wore short trousers so it would be quite painful).

There were also rules about the relative sizes within quite strict limits.  I remember one lad, who in retrospect was dyslexic, who was frequently punished for writing his capital 'R' the wrong way round, which probably didn't help him, and being left handed was also subject to punishment.

Those were the days!

I remember that I decided I wanted to do joined up writing when I was 4 or 5, so I decided to teach myself and started doing it. I got told off and was told I wasn't allowed to do it yet. At 7 or so, we were all taught how to do joined up writing, but by then I refused to have anything to do with it. I could write very nicely by then, and wasn't going to spoil that by following a bunch of arbitrary rules which just made it look untidy. Happily, thwacking the kids wasn't the done thing by then, so my punishment was only the withholding of the "berol handwriting pen" that was handed to each of my classmates when their joined up writing reached a certain standard :-)

I've always been a stubborn little so-and-so, and the stand-off between me and the teacher lasted until 2 weeks before the end of the term, when they gave me the pen anyway, despite my refusal to play the game. I still print to this day, and am often complimented on my lovely handwriting ;-)

Going back to school days, I think the one thing that really stands out after the fact is the sheer number of times I got told to "look at me when I'm talking to you". My eye contact is pretty "normal" now (whatever that means) but I guess it wasn't back then.

I also never had any natural respect for authority, thinking it illogical to respect someone just because they are a teacher. I suspect I spoke to everyone as an equal. I remember often getting told off for being "rude" when I thought I was just asking a question, and soon discovered that any attempt to explain that I was only asking a question just made matters worse (that is "talking back", and is rude and disrespectful, apparently). I guess I was missing something in tone or body language to cause these problems.

Oops... the comment above yours was meant to go here, Moggsy!

Oops... the comment above yours was meant to go here, Moggsy!