What was your school like?

One theme running through the replies is that the further back you go in time, the worse children were treated by teachers.

Corporal punishment is an obvious difference, but also just plain cruelty, like the tales of being forced to face the wall.

In my junior school a punishment was forcing boys to stand in front of the class and having books piled onto their hands, and not being allowed to drop them.

I was pulled out of the class by my hair by a teacher in my junior school.

Physical punishments such as spanking were the norm at home in those days too but going further back my mother got 'the strap'.

An old saying my mum often used: 'children should be seen but not heard'.

A good thing in the junior school is that they had people come in to test children's eyes, so at the age of 9 I could see properly for the first time with my NHS specs

Junior school wasn't as bad for bullying as the senior but I did have some physical fights with boys.

A theme that persists throughout our experiences, with some exceptions, is social isolation, no matter what the era.

Briar said:

We had a teacher similar when I was at infant or junior, or forget which. She’d make me stand with my face to the wall a lot and if I moved she’d hold the back of my head and push my nose into the wall

Unbelievable.

Torturing children really ...

It gets worse the further back you go.

My mum was frequently locked in a cupboard by a teacher.

We had a teacher similar when I was at infant or junior, or forget which. She’d make me stand with my face to the wall a lot and if I moved she’d hold the back of my head and push my nose into the wall  I’m laughing as I obviously didn’t let it bother me too much, I actually still remember her name and think fondly of her. I suppose that kind of punishment was normal back then, along with a slipper on the back of your leg or bum from your parents. I found being shouted at and talked down to far worse. 

Im with you on the disgusting warm milk

Oh the politics of PE. It was quite barbaric actually. 

The school i went to was pretty rough anyway. It took all of the kids that had been expelled from other schools. 

Incorrect 'picking' would often result in a clout round the face. Which was actually ok to be honest. Ive been an active self harmer since a child, so have at it ha ha ha. 

For me, the only thing worse than always getting picked last in PE was the day my grand total of two friends were in a school orchestra rehearsal and the PE teacher decided that was the best possible time to intervene... and I had to pick a team myself from 30ish kids who hated me and zero friends. I picked someone who tended towards indifference first and immediately ceded all decision-making to him

My partner's school used to be a technical school- it was a grammar school by the time he got there in the late 90s. We didn't have either of those where I grew up- I think I probably would have got into grammar school if the opportunity had been there, but I don't think it would have made any difference to my abysmal social life!

My school was not a great time for me. I was bullied quite a bit. 

I tried to become invisible, and the result was that even the teachers didnt notice me. I had two friends, but im not even sure if that is true. I have never spoken with them since leaving school. 

I didnt understand why children were so cruel to me and each other. It opened my eyes to the idea that the world is a scary dangerous place. A theme that has arisen time and time again with my therapist. I am scared a LOT. Maybe all the time. 

Yeah. School was hard. I have always done all of my learning on my own, so didnt ever really connect with a teacher. 

I have always been terrified of failure, so never took part in any activities. Obviously all the other kids would be good at whatever it was, and i would be so bad everyone would laugh. 

One funny thing. In the forced PE lessons when the captains would pick for teams, it would always come down to me and one other kid who wasnt the brightest spark. Pleasant enough, but never gonna be in a government think tank. 

Well this one day the lad whos turn it was to pick looked at the other captain and said 'you have them both'. 

So that sums it up. Me and this other kid were considered on par. Bottom of the barrel people. More of a hinderance to have them by your side, than to be short teammates. 

Wow. I didnt realise i still cared about that. That sucks. I thought i was past that by now!!!! Lol

Primary school was probably easier but that's because I was a lot less aware of things. It was still difficult; I was shy, quiet, I didn't really fit in. I couldn't stick my hand up and ask to go to the toilet or whatever, and then I wet myself...

There was bullying but it never was as bad as secondary school. I always questioned what I did to deserve it. The frustrating thing for me is that I let it happen. 

We had school milk in cartons and I hated it as well

Warm milk always makes me feel sick *shudders*

Your school looked like it would have been lovely so much character.

Sad it's gone now

That's just awful. 

She was made to stand and fainted more than once as, like for you, this was a continuous punishment.

I'm so sorry you suffered this

A girl was continuously crying in the corner of the classroom though, which was sad.

She was made to face the wall all day.

It's hard to comprehend now but even in the early 70s that method was still used as a 'punishment' 

I know because I was subjected to it at my nursery school. I was made to sit in the corner facing the wall nearly all day every day. I wasn't allowed to turn my head around to face the class or I would be yelled at by the teacher. I remember I cried a lot but if I cried too loudly I would be yelled at by the teacher and told I was "behaving like a baby"  

My memories of what I was being 'punished' for are less vivid. I believe it was because I got overwhelmed by the noise from the other children in the playground and had meltdowns or tried to run away.

Thanks. I decided to try teaching, imagining it would be like my experience. After teaching practice in "rough" inner-city school I decided that it was not for me, and joined the NHS instead. My own school experience certainly did not involve teachers being told to foxtrot oscar and kicked in the shins by a seven-year-old. Now I have more understanding and sympathy for these kids ...

Ian said:

There are still good schools about!

That's good to know.

Schools shouldn't be traumatising, but often are.

It's was good to read your, what sounds like, largely positive experience of schooling too.

That was my second choice had I not got into grammar school. The technical school is now  comprehensive, but has a brilliant repuation as an autism-friendly, dyslexia specialist school. My neighbour's kids love it.  There are still good schools about!

My husband went to a Technical Secondary School.

Not that many were built.

It's an education that he really enjoyed as he learnt a lot of skills and crafts there.

I'd actually have loved to have gone to one and learnt all the boys things!

He uses some of the skills he learnt there still today.

I was fortunate in going to a good primary school and then on to a grammar school. In primary, we had a brilliant year six teacher - a retired teacher in the Army Education Corps. Never mind the kids, the Head Teacher was scared of him! He was eccentric - Friday afternoons he would write the clues from the Telegraph crossword for us to solve. Whoever got the most clues got a shilling  (5p) which in those days was worth a Mars bar and stick of licorice.  Another of his tricks was to get us to give him two five-digit numbers to multiply together ... we worked them out on paper, he did it in his head!

At grammar school we had a lot of geeks ... now I can recognise the kids with ADHD and autism. The teachers were mad as a box of frogs, but generally harmless, apart from a maths teacher who left suddenly after hitting a sixth-form student over the head with a blackboard - allegedly. I quite enjoyed school. I don't think some of the "characters" we had as teachers would fit in with modern assembly-line teaching, though.

I don't remember what she was punished for but I do remember that she wasn't white and was the only non-white child in our school.

The schooling was very harsh in those days though.

A chap I worked with went to a Catholic school and the teachers there hit his knuckles with the side of the ruler every time he tried to write with his left hand.

That was in the 50s.

A girl was continuously crying in the corner of the classroom though, which was sad.

She was made to face the wall all day.

she was punished for crying?
did the teachers not see to her if shes ok or have any empathy? or was sadness punished and shunned back in those days?

My primary school was a small one in a village in East Anglia. I had a fairly standard primary school experience I think, I was a bit odd but I was encouraged to push myself and I'd known everyone in my class since we started in reception class. The area had a three tier system at the time (primary, middle, upper school) so primary school finished well before the social stuff got too complicated.

Middle school and upper school were dreadful, especially middle school. I was there from year 5 to year 8 and the bullying was absolutely horrendous. The other kids could already tell that I was Different and once the popular girls decided I was a target, that was it. Upper school was similar but because the school was so much bigger it was easier to avoid the bullies. Sixth form was a big reduction in numbers though so once again I was The Weirdo, though I did at least have some other weird kids to be friends with by then.

I actually loved the routine of school and the learning. I think it's a real shame that other kids treated me the way they did and that the teachers let them do it, because I could have really thrived if I was allowed to just be myself.

That looks like a nice building to be taught in Goosey.

Here's my 1st school, infants, mid demolition.

This was in place whilst the new one was being built.

It had outdoor toilets (as we did at home too) and was very basic in facilities.

This would be around 1967.

In those days corporal punishment was in place so the girls were given the slipper and the boys the cane.

However, I'm sure this (CP) was used in the junior, but unsure about the infants.

My infant school memories (once we moved into the new school) aren't too bad.

A girl was continuously crying in the corner of the classroom though, which was sad.

She was made to face the wall all day.

I remember going on a school trip and everyone had money for ice creams and I was the only one who didn't.

A happy memory is making up food packs for the elderly residents of the nearby flats (where my nan lived) and delivering them in person during the Harvest Festival.

The school was in the most 'disadvantaged' area of Portsmouth, where we lived.

Another memory is school milk which used to make me feel sick as sometimes it was warm and I'd try to secretly get rid of it.