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Corporal Punishment - The Belt


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Might be time to revive this one!

I was at school in Glasgow in the 40s and 50s and the belt was in use every day until maybe S5 (and even then one boy got 6 scorchers on his last day at school at the end of S6!). I got it in P1, God knows why! - I wouldn't hold my hand out and was taken to the Head Infant teacher,  who soon put a stop to that nonsense! Some primary teachers taught with the strap in their hand, even in the Infant classes. In fact I was such a fearty wee shite, and clever, too, that I probably only got it about a dozen times. In primary school the same  few boys got it day after day. The old woman who took us in P7 held the tails of the strap and strapped with the handle end; on cold winter days she gloated about how extra sore the strap would be on cold hands . At secondary, the belt was used in nearly every period up to S4,  There was always a bit of drama involved.  Some teachers who wore MA gowns kept the belt in the false sleeve, so there was quite a cafuffle getting the thing out for use, while the boy stood waiting.  One teacher, who had a very supple undivided strap, would roll it into a tight ball and fling it at the desk of any miscreant. You had to make the walk of shame carrying the thing, hand it over, and get your hands out. We all got to know who had the sorest belts and whose belts were pretty feeble; so if the teacher didn't have his belt with him and sent you off to get one from another teacher you knew where to go! I once had to go to the male staffroom to get the spare belt that was kept on a high shelf - no-one there and a dreadful stink of tobacco smoke!

 it was often brutal and some pupils were undoubtedly affected badly by it, but there was no escape and most boys and quite a few girls just took their licks and put up with it. Some boys even took pride in taking a good strapping and showing their purple palms at the  next break. As several contributors have commented, lines were a hellish boring waste of time and many , probably most, boys preferred to get it over with and put up with stinging palms instead. There was of course a good deal of peer pressure to take the belt instead of lines if the choice was offered! Detention was unknown at that time - teachers wouldn't have been willing to stay behind after school! Given the general parental approval of corporal punishment at that time  (I got my arse strapped at home) and the large classes teachers had to cope with, it was probably necessary and certainly accepted;  many teachers were judicious and fair, even if there too many bampots. I MIGHT have become a teacher in 1960 or so, and I have to say that if I had I would have been sending off to Lochgelly for their very best strap, made sure I knew how to use it and hoped that, after a few demonstrations early on, I didn't have to use it much.

Times have however changed, largely for the better, and I am delighted that my children and grandchildren have had a happy experience at school and have  often (though not always!) had good relations with their teachers in schools which were well run despite the absence of the belt.

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Might be time to revive this one!
I was at school in Glasgow in the 40s and 50s and the belt was in use every day until maybe S5 (and even then one boy got 6 scorchers on his last day at school at the end of S6!). I got it in P1, God knows why! - I wouldn't hold my hand out and was taken to the Head Infant teacher,  who soon put a stop to that nonsense! Some primary teachers taught with the strap in their hand, even in the Infant classes. In fact I was such a fearty wee shite, and clever, too, that I probably only got it about a dozen times. In primary school the same  few boys got it day after day. The old woman who took us in P7 held the tails of the strap and strapped with the handle end; on cold winter days she gloated about how extra sore the strap would be on cold hands . At secondary, the belt was used in nearly every period up to S4,  There was always a bit of drama involved.  Some teachers who wore MA gowns kept the belt in the false sleeve, so there was quite a cafuffle getting the thing out for use, while the boy stood waiting.  One teacher, who had a very supple undivided strap, would roll it into a tight ball and fling it at the desk of any miscreant. You had to make the walk of shame carrying the thing, hand it over, and get your hands out. We all got to know who had the sorest belts and whose belts were pretty feeble; so if the teacher didn't have his belt with him and sent you off to get one from another teacher you knew where to go! I once had to go to the male staffroom to get the spare belt that was kept on a high shelf - no-one there and a dreadful stink of tobacco smoke!
 it was often brutal and some pupils were undoubtedly affected badly by it, but there was no escape and most boys and quite a few girls just took their licks and put up with it. Some boys even took pride in taking a good strapping and showing their purple palms at the  next break. As several contributors have commented, lines were a hellish boring waste of time and many , probably most, boys preferred to get it over with and put up with stinging palms instead. There was of course a good deal of peer pressure to take the belt instead of lines if the choice was offered! Detention was unknown at that time - teachers wouldn't have been willing to stay behind after school! Given the general parental approval of corporal punishment at that time  (I got my arse strapped at home) and the large classes teachers had to cope with, it was probably necessary and certainly accepted;  many teachers were judicious and fair, even if there too many bampots. I MIGHT have become a teacher in 1960 or so, and I have to say that if I had I would have been sending off to Lochgelly for their very best strap, made sure I knew how to use it and hoped that, after a few demonstrations early on, I didn't have to use it much.
Times have however changed, largely for the better, and I am delighted that my children and grandchildren have had a happy experience at school and have  often (though not always!) had good relations with their teachers in schools which were well run despite the absence of the belt.

Is there a chance you are the oldest poster on P&B? If you were at school in the 40’s?
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26 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:

First post on a Scottish football message board, so he trawls back  4 and a half years to post in a thread about getting the belt...

 

Second post is reviving a thread about your pishing habits. :lol:

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Did any teachers end up taking a bartering for trying to use the belt?

Imagine being 16/17 and some 50 year old tries to hit you with very little justification? You would think on a few occasions someone would think 'f**k this' and retaliate?

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1 minute ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Nice to read through the thread and find this out

I would've sworn Hedgecutter was at least ten years older than you

Nah, only (nearly) 10 months older!

He still looks quite youthful

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My granny used to hit my dad with the flex of the vacuum cleaner when he misbehaved. This was in the 1950s and was pretty normal. Once, my grandad caught my dad skiving school and belted him with the leather strap that he used to sharpen is cut throat razor. My grandad was a policeman as well [emoji23]

Great days, before political correctness ruined everything.

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19 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

My granny used to hit my dad with the flex of the vacuum cleaner when he misbehaved. This was in the 1950s and was pretty normal. Once, my grandad caught my dad skiving school and belted him with the leather strap that he used to sharpen is cut throat razor. My grandad was a policeman as well emoji23.png

Great days, before political correctness ruined everything.

Is that a joke? Genuinely can't tell if you're being serious here or not

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Is that a joke? Genuinely can't tell if you're being serious here or not


I’m joking. It is quite mad that this sort of behaviour was basically normal though, until fairly recently. When I was a kid I got the Beano and the punchline to most of the Dennis the Menace stories was his dad giving him the slipper.
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1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

 


I’m joking. It is quite mad that this sort of behaviour was basically normal though, until fairly recently. When I was a kid I got the Beano and the punchline to most of the Dennis the Menace stories was his dad giving him the slipper.

 

I thought so! 

Aye it's mental stuff. Horrible that wee kids were getting leathered for simply being wee kids and doing what wee kids do. Horrible that anyone was getting the belt. I can imagine some teachers who hated it but also plenty who loved it.

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3 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Did any teachers end up taking a bartering for trying to use the belt?

Imagine being 16/17 and some 50 year old tries to hit you with very little justification? You would think on a few occasions someone would think 'f**k this' and retaliate?

At my school the belt was reserved for ultra-serious offences and was only used occasionally. Other physical abuse from (some of) the teachers was common though, including slaps across the face and punches to the head. Our Latin teacher was an utter oxygen thief of a man who should've been forced to retire years earlier. He smacked us around routinely but even the first years learned he couldn't hit hard enough to hurt. When I was in the 2nd year he made a grave error of judgement and took a swing at Baz Stephenson, one of the delinquents of the 4th. Apparently Baz just batted his hand away, drew back his own fist and planted the teacher on his arse. Baz got expelled, which we all thought was a terrible miscarriage of justice.

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On 28/11/2014 at 15:23, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Considering how many S&M fanatics are apparently among us, were there kids who'd deliberately get themselves in trouble for a quick lick of the cat? Just wondering what teachers would do if their ministrations were met with orgasmic moans :P

Also, can anyone here boak on cue? At one point, I was in a class with a kid who would vomit whenever he realised that the lesson wasn't of interest to him. No fingers down the throat or anything; he just stared off into space for maybe 10 seconds before bringing up the contents of his stomach all over the desk. Quite a skill, and not one that I can remember anyone else every admitting to. He ended up spending more and more time in private lessons, for fairly obvious reasons.

Image result for boxden smileys

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4 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Did any teachers end up taking a bartering for trying to use the belt?

Imagine being 16/17 and some 50 year old tries to hit you with very little justification? You would think on a few occasions someone would think 'f**k this' and retaliate?

I went to Kirkland High in Methil. Classes were streamed according to ability with the absolute dregs kept to one class which didn't actually get any lessons. Instead the House Masters - senior teachers near retirement - supervised them in a classroom where they watched videos, took them out on trips in the school minibus and basically tried to teach them a wee bit about life.  One of the Masters (can't remember his name) was really well liked, must have been in his sixties and a bit frail. During one of these classes one of the thickos attacked him and reputedly broke his nose.  The story was he'd tried to spark up a fag in class and the House Master tried to stop him. We saw the commotion from our Tech Drawing class as he was frogmarched up to the teacher's staffroom by two of the male teachers, where they proceeded to beat the shit out of him. Somebody saw him getting collected by his mum from the School Office later that day and apparently he was in a helluva state. Never seen again at Kirkland though. 

 

Violence by teachers wasn't that uncommon, along with the usual sexual predatory stuff. One of the Art teachers used to organise trips to gigs and it was kind of understood that he would sort you out with a ticket if you sat up the front of the minibus with him and his wandering hands. I never went on any of his trips - not sure Jefferson Starship were worth sucking cock for. 

 

One of the English teachers took a dislike to me and actually called me out to fight him after school. Someone told my chemistry teacher (who was also my rugby coach) and he was waiting with me at the back of the gym when the English teacher arrived. Words were had. 

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