The thread about cold showers reminded me of many, many years ago when I was teaching a class of 7 year olds.
To set the scene. We'd been to a Victorian School for the day the previous day and they had absolutely loved it. Mostly they loved the punishments and discipline.
The head teacher came into the classroom and as well as the usual activities there was a group of 6 or 7 gathered around the blackboard. He asked what was going on.
I explained that I had foolishly told them that sometimes teachers drew a chalk circle and children had to keep their noses in the circle until told they could sit down. One of the livelier boys had demanded to have a go. HT laughed and said asked what the others were doing.
I had to explain they were queuing up for a go in the chalk circle.
They were a very unusual class.....
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Unusual Punishments.
SummerInTheVillage · 19/08/2019 15:39
Ah yes, I remember the whole class being absolutely fascinated by Victorian punishments such as being tied in a sack, or hoisted up to the ceiling in a basket; I remember not quite believing that one! When choosing things in Victorian schools to write about, everyone wanted to write about punishments. Also the canings as described by Roald Dahl, especially the prefects or "Boazers" beating younger pupils, who would then show off their stripes in the dormitory afterwards.
In the present day, some unusual punishments I remember from home or school were:
- Being made to walk barefoot from the car to the house, for taking shoes off in the car.
- The alarm clock in the kitchen being set (old-fashioned type with bells on the top, scarily loud).
(These are all true, and I know, some of them would be
unthinkable if they happened now.) At my infants school in the 1980s, the deputy head was the queen of unusual and humiliating punishments. Fortunately she was not my class teacher, but some things I saw her do were:- Two boys who laughed when told off were then made to laugh in the mirror.
- When another boy messed about in assembly, a pushchair was wheeled in, and the lad invited to sit in it, for being "a baby".
- Shoes off for children who played with them, especially Velcro.
- She often made fidgety children stand on the table, or hold on to her skirt, "like a baby".
- She once did a slow march around the classroom, throwing children's exercise books on the floor; then she made them stand at the front, and hold them up. Their crime? After the teacher had written "kitten" on the board, they had written "kitten" in their books, without actually being told to.
- If children talked when she was talking, she would say "Are you trying to be the teacher?", before inviting them up to the front, giving them a piece of chalk, and she herself would sit in the child's place, and there would be an uneasy silence. This never happened to me, but if I wasn't afraid of her, I would probably have been grinning my head off, which no doubt would have had me missing my play.
- Whenever we were out of the classroom, it was usually locked behind us, perhaps because of those sharp scissors which we used in pre "health and safety" days. We would line up outside, and she would count everyone out, chivvying them along. She would say "hurry up, or you'll be locked in!" And when two children were particularly slow, she once actually did lock it (briefly), with them still inside.
I remember I was about 6 so mid 80s I didn't have my pe kit , my mum never remembered to send it in and I was only 6 so not sure why it was my fault but anyway my teacher made me do pe in my knickers . I had no vest nothing just my knickers . I remember being in tears and all the kids laughing. I suppose my teacher thought it was punishment for forgetting but what a cruel bitch . I don't think I told my mum for years after and she said why didn't you say.
Even now I still think it was the most humiliating experience. ( I need therapy 
)
@wanderings At primary school in the mid-90s, the punishment for talking in class was missing break/lunchtime pay for two days sitting on the floor outside the staff room.
I got caught talking in class so was sent to the staff room at break. I asked if I could take a book, which the teacher said was fine. It was fucking brilliant. Sitting in the warm, reading a book rather than being outside in the cold with tossers.
I got talking quite regularly in class after that and it was always down on my school reports that I was too chatty in class
@ChristineTime Ooh, that reminds me of something else I did. My junior school loved whole-year or whole-school punishments, such as practising lining up instead of playtime, because of a select few. I hated this, and once made my displeasure known in front of the whole year, with a lot of shouting and tears. 
I was taken aside and told not to be rude: this did not pacify me, I stood my ground. The next time, I thwarted them at their own game: when I knew that playtime would be replaced with this punishment, I asked if I could stay in the classroom to do some extra work. My teacher hadn't cottoned on to why I asked for this, and allowed me to. Victory!
Massively outing but never mind
At secondary school (late 90s, early 00s) we had a classroom which had doors opening on to the outside. If you pissed about in art class, the teacher made you stand outside.
One day in early autumn, one of my friends was messing around and got told to stand outside. She made a massive fuss about it. She told the teacher she had a weak immune system and was susceptible to colds/flu so couldn't go outside because it was cold. Eventually obviously the teacher made her stand outside for 10 minutes.
My friend responded by getting someone me to write a fake note from her mum saying she was ill with pneumonia as a result of having to stand outside during lessons. In the note, I wrote that I (her mother) was furious at the way she'd been treated and would be complaining to the governors as soon as my daughter was out of her critical condition in hospital. My friend faked her mum's signature, posted the letter and spent the next few days wagging off school at her boyfriend's house.
The school obviously called her mum but couldn't get hold of her for a couple of days because my friend used to get home before her mum and delete the answer phone message. So the school wrote her a letter which my friend didn't manage to intercept. She got in absolutely fuck tonnes of trouble for that stunt
I remember at junior school a boy who wouldn't stop getting up and messing about in class was literally tied to his chair with a length of rope.
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Not so much a punishment as a forfeit, but this thread reminded me of this one: at my youth group, we once had a sponsored silence, where everyone sat in a circle and read a book for the duration. The "punishment" for breaking the silence was to be blindfolded for three minutes. This was playfully said, along with "I wonder if anyone's going to make me use the scarf??".
To see if I could get away with it, I said something under my breath. But I was spotted by a sharp-eyed leader, and served my three-minute sentence in the dark! 
I wasn't the only one though.
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