If you went to school in the 70s/80s what happened that wouldn't happen now?

[TheVampiresWife]

I started primary in 1976, left secondary in 1989. Some of mine:

Corporal punishment (the most obvious one for a lot of us I think). In junior school (early 80s) we had a headmaster who would save all the week's canings for Friday afternoon assembly. The kids lined up on stage and were caned in front of the whole school. It was fucking horrific looking back - I remember a boy in my year crying and wetting himself on stage and he never lived it down, the nicknames followed him to secondary school

Girls doing needlework/cookery while boys did woodwork/metalwork

Boy in my class whose surname was Gaye. Geography teacher used to call him 'Poof' and 'Queer' which of course other kids found hilarious and joined in. He changed his surname halfway through secondary school

In my primary class an overweight girl was made to stand on a chair so the whole class could see what we would look like if we were greedy and ate too much

The headmaster who caned kids on stage also used to get girls to kiss him on the cheek and say thank you at prize givings. He also used to make comments about how we were 'developing' and once said in a conversation with my mum that I was getting 'a broad back'. The mums didn't seem to mind his comments

In primary school the children in the SEN class were described as [vile word I can't bring myself to type] by teachers and children alike quite unselfconsciously

In secondary school an English teacher had an affair with a sixth former and she became pregnant. He left but wasn't reprimanded and got a teaching job in another school the following year. The couple are still together all these years later!

It really was a different time and not necessarily for the better, either. I do have lots of happy memories of school too though!

Having board rubbers thrown at your head. Being dragged down the corridor by your ears. But, for me, by far the worst, was being forced to get completely naked after PE, and have a communal shower with the other girls, whilst being "supervised" by the PE teacher. I was a late developer, had no boobs when everyone else did, and it was sheer hell for me. It must have been so much worse for the few who had disabilities.

I loved my school life.
It really was like something out of the famous 5. We often took the tables outside for lunch. Built tents and projects outside.
Our school, the 9 years olds and up went to adventure centers. We had nature walks. Whole days in summer doing sports or hobby type things.
Our secondary school had some amazing teacher, one who taught people to drive, the swimming pool was open in lunch hour you just had to book it the day before.

A smoking staff room.
You could smell it a mile off.

Threatening the girls that a male pe teacher would enter in several minutes if we weren't all out and ready...

These were 90s/early 2000s...

The geography teacher explaining mountainous, undulating and the plains by pointing to the girls' chests. Also, being smacked with rulers, having our mouths literally washed out with soap and being lined up in order of our results. One of the teachers telling us he could tell our 'breeding' by just looking at us.

I started 76 and left 89 too op. At infant school and junior only the head would smack children. The infant head would put people over her knee in hymn practise. People might have been sent to her at other times to be smacked I'm not sure. At junior school the head would give kids the slipper in private. I remember when my kids started primary thinking how bizarre it was that it had happened only a generation ago and that it was unimaginable for similar to happen in 21st century schools

My mother, late 60s and early 70s was at boarding school. She lived on a Scottish Island. If the plane couldn't get from the mainland to get them home, an air hostess would take them home for the night and then return them to the airport the next day... no checks or anything, just any female staff member.

My mum says its quite odd looking back!

Teachers would tell kids they were thick, stupid, etc.
Had one teacher who threw the blackboard rubber at your head if you were not paying attention.
At infant school you'd get a smack if you misbehaved. The head once slapped my friend across her bare legs in front of everyone in assembly.
It was pretty shit really.

1980s no coporal punishment but the pe teacher pulled my hair once as a punishment for forgetting my hair band. My parents didn't seem to care when I told them.

Pervy teacher...common knowledge he was a wrong un. Think he eventually got done for it.

Well I don’t know where you went to school but mine was nothing like that.
I started primary must be 1968
And finished school in 1980. So older than you but we didn’t have corporal punishment at all.
No showering naked. No board rubbers thrown at us.
One girl did have thing with the physics teacher though.

I went to primary school in 1970.
When I was in Sixth Form a teacher had an affair with a girl in the lower sixth, she was over 16 and he left his wife for her so all good.
Seems so strange now I have a daughter in Sixth Form!

We had a society called Ship Adoption. Basically, you wrote to sailors and they wrote back. We were 12. Whole scheme run by our elderly spinster RE teacher.

Also piling into a teacher's car, no seat belts, permission slips or anything, teacher smoking away, to go and buy sugary snacks for the school tuck shop.

I loved my school days. Secondary school in Scotland 1979-76.

Showering after PE

Would be good if they could bring this back tbh with individual showers

I started primary in 1971.
Teachers smoking
Corporal punishment (mainly from dinner ladies)
Favouritism that would make the NativityZillas on here's toes curl- same Mary and Joseph for 5 years, Mary also being the only one invited to have a 3 week cookery course to make a Christmas cake (the rest of us got one session to do rock cakes) Mary's mother inviting the teacher for tea and the teacher going!
Seemingly every other child falling off the climbing frame and "splitting" their "head open" (was always desperate to see one of those and had visions of a boiled egg with the top sliced off) No parent ever sued the school for the head splitting. The nit nurse having a fettle through your hair in front of everyone. Being weighed in your vest and pants in front of everyone.

Children who, looking back, clearly had learning difficulties, or had deeply troubled home lives being ignored, insulted (by kids and staff alike)

Jesus! I was at primary in the early 90s so not long after and sounds world apart from your experience!

Hiding being gay with every fibre of your existence

I remember a pupil in my class getting put over the teachers knee for a smack in 1984

I got called stupid and shouted at for a minor mistake in 1988 - really hope that doesn't happen anymore anyway

Late 1970's the principal would roam the schoolyard at lunch time and cane any boys who were out of uniform or he felt like caning. We girls had to kneel so the girls mistress could measure that our skirts were long enough and touched the ground.

Biology teacher had affair with student, got her pregnant and married her with no repercussions. He was repulsive and a lot older than us.

On school camps, all the teachers would be drinking.

This is late 60s to early 70s: In my secondary school upper 6th students took cover lessons and ran the dining hall.

I never saw a teacher in the dining hall.

Upper sixth students could give out lines to other students.

When I tell my present students about this they are awestruck and say: "It's like Hogwarts".

:o

Born in 1970. Teachers being on strike, especially for a couple of my secondary school years; so no discipline, no detention and no extra-curricular activities for those years. Which led to us bunking off school every week with no comeback. Also bunked off to the on-site youth club and again no comeback. Bit of a free-for-all really. Loved it .

Teachers generally nice although one in primary school who compared us privileged kids (lived in nice area), to the poor kids in his last school in East London, and constantly told us how spoilt and horrible we were. Meanie.

Less pressure, exams seemed easier, and parents seemed fairly uninterested in what we all got up to educationally. But maybe that was because my mum was busy dealing with abuse from my dad actually.

Friend disclosed serious sexual abuse (by an adult family member) to a teacher. Teacher did NOTHING. NOTHING!

No corporal punishment. I thought that stopped in the late 60s?

My maths teacher wore crochet trousers and stunk of BO.

It was a normal occurrence for the RS teacher to wear odd shoes

We were all taught to write with an italic fountain pen

The English teacher threw a thermos flask at my friend, it hit her on the head and nothing was ever done about it and we didn't expect anything to be done about it

Single sex girls comprehensive in the late 70s/early 80s

In infants my (lovely) headmistress kept a plimsoll on the piano in assembly for slippering kids, but never saw it used - the threat was enough!
Went to an all girl's grammar so didn't have to put up with all the sexist remarks and behaviour - I think it was quite modern Inthe 70/80s! We did have to play dodge the board rubber, and there was always smoke billowing out if the staff room. There was a set of girls toilets where there was always smoke too - teachers ignored that!
There seemed to be much more freedom - no risk assessments etc.

Boys first on the tegister

Board rubbers and bunches of keys thrown at heads.

During DofE camping trips the teacher bought us a 2 litre bottle of cider and a 2 litre bottle of lager per tent and told us not to tell our parents.

Corporal punishment

Boys being told that feeding and housing their families will be their responsibility and they need to be prepared for it

A smoking staff room.
You could smell it a mile off

I remember taking the register down to the staffroom after morning registration and my clothes would stink. Also my violin lessons sometimes used to happen in the staffroom while the teachers puffed away all around us!