would think nothing of throwing a blackboard rubber at you if you were not paying attention
brian baker
I’m back after a couple of months of limited internet access due to a number of issues both technical and personal. I’m catching up with my forum connections and thought I’d rejuvenate this topic. Or try!
The blackboard rubber throwing posts insisted I mention my older school days. As previously stated, I went to Paget Road Infants and Junior. Then I passed my eleven plus and went to Marsh Hill Grammar Technical School as it was then known. We had a geography teacher, Mr Platt who was of the same persuasion. If while writing on the blackboard he heard any murmurings he would spin around and launch said rubber in the direction of the noise. His aim was uncanny! Without stopping to look, he would throw it at the source of the interruption. He also had a habit of going to the Stockland pub most lunchtimes and downing six or seven pints. He would come back, up to the third floor where his room, 15, was at the end of the corridor, and if there was any noise coming from the room he would quite violently sling the door open, often taking it off its hinges to the point where the caretaker refused to paint the door as a replacement or repair would soon be required again! Another of his favourite punishments was to smash a desk, remove the length of wood that edged the lid and use that to beat anybody who offended his sensibilities. Often while taking history in room 14 with Mr Handley, we would hear the sound of wood cracking, and then howls of pain mingled with the dull thud of backside versus timber! Mr Handley would momentarily suspend his discourse while waiting for quiet to fall again; perhaps commenting that Mr Platt was upset at somebody.
Mr Handley, though not averse to physical punishment would quite often use our own silly behaviour against us by bringing us to the front of the class and making us repeat our indiscretion in full view. It never did seem quite so clever afterwards!
Mr Probert, another geography teacher we had later in our school life never, as far as I can remember resorted to physical punishment. I do recall him keeping a cane in his study at the back of the class, and maybe he did on occasion resort to it's use. Though old then, in the late 60’s early 70’s and not, as I remember a particularly large man had an air of authority that we respected, and his tone of voice and expression was enough to make us realise we were at the limit of the acceptable. As with one or two other members of staff, he still wore his gown, though he had dispensed with his mortarboard.
We had real respect for them, and yes, there was an element of fear but we grew up the better for it. Had I gone home and told my dad a teacher had done any of these things, I would have been asked why and the least I could have expected was to be told ‘serves you right then’ if not further punishment at his hands. There would certainly not have been any thought of complaining to the school or contacting the police or solicitors. It puts me in mind of a quote my mother often used- ‘you have to be cruel to be kind’. We were being given lessons that would benefit and sustain us in our adult life. And they have, for me at least.