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!

No corporal punishment like others have said, but a few other things that wouldn’t happen today:

• 9 year olds trained as the equivalent of today’s lollipop ladies, so in charge of stopping the traffic on a busy main road and allowing primary kids to cross the road

• Fell further and further behind in maths and repeatedly asked for help and the HoY told me that no one could help. End of year exam I scored 11% and no one said anything, not even to my parents that I badly needed help. No one cared that my progress was non-existent.

• had 5 weeks off school aged 15 and the school never queried my repeated absences. Got so behind on schoolwork and not one teacher ever gave me a list of work I needed to catch up on. Only just scraped through on my exam results that year.

• aged 9 my teacher stopped assembly during a song three times to say it was my voice she could hear singing and that my voice was terrible and I should mouth the words from now on. In front of the whole school, who laughed and humiliated me for months afterwards. I’ve never sung in public ever again.

• 9 year olds put in charge of the nursery at lunch time, to monitor the 4 year olds while they ate lunch. No such thing as first aid training for choking.

• sprained my ankle severely and had crutches for 6 weeks. A self-defence course was running at the time during PE with an external instructor and the PE teacher shouted at me in front of the class that an attacker wouldn’t care about my ankle so I should take my turn kicking the punch bag like everyone else. She left and the instructor rolled her eyes and said sit down and observe.

• being bullied relentlessly by a teacher aged 10. My DM said in later years that she had noticed I had become silent and withdrawn but she never bothered to find out why.

We got a new PE teacher at secondary who started when I was in second year. He was a former professional rugby player who had been dismissed from his previous school for tying two pupils to their chairs as a punishment (he taught previously at the school my cousin went to). He was a real sadist and when I considered sending DS to my old school, I saw this teacher at the open day. Decided against sending DS there!

Corporal punishment wasn't allowed at my infant school but I was smacked by a teacher in reception once for answering back. I wouldn't remember it, but came across my old school reports recently which mentioned the incident, asking my parents to teach me not to provoke the teacher. I was 4.

Had a lovely retired male teacher who took girls to Paris in Spring. It wasn't an all girls school but boys were not allowed to go in the trip. Not a pervert but I think he liked being surrounded by teenage girls. I have fond memories of that trip.

Local pub across the road from school used to have teachers in the bar and fifth form upwards in the lounge at lunch. Most of the teachers would pretend they hadn't seen us, but the bar staff clearly knew we were underage as we had to wear uniform in sixth form as well.

[quote C0RINNA]@Bbq1

What years did you attend secondary @CORINNA? In my secondary school NOBODY came out as gay or lesbian. Wrongly, it just would have been social suicide which is sad. Of course, looking back there must have been gay pupils. "Homoe" or "Hom" was a horrible insult flung around by very unpleasant people. Anyone actually being gay wasn't on our radar though (except for the female pe teacher) and it just wasn't an environment anyone could have come out in comfortably. My ds it at the same school and it's gone totally the other way it would appear. Multiple gay males, every other girl it seems claims to be to Bi or Lesbian and there an trans student going male to female. I am all for people expressing their sexuality but it has most definitely, especially among girls become cool and a badge of honour to say you are bi or lesbian. I'll await my flaming

I was at school in the 1970s. There was no such thing as “ coming out “, people just gradually noticed that someone was gay / lesbian and, as a Pp said, they were in the weirdo group with Goths/ kids who didn’t like sport / those who played in the orchestra / chess club.

No it wasn’t remotely cool . I guess these pupils cared little about being socially successful and more about being themselves.

And yes kids were called names by bullies - lezzer and poofter usually.

But no one said they should have their genitals surgically removed or be chemically castrated. No one fucked with their minds by saying they were in the wrong bodies. No one said they should take drugs for life.

They just hung out with the other weirdos and non cool kids.

I’m not saying it was all fun for lesbians. But nothing like the abuse they get now.

There was no pressure on girls to be stick thin, dye their hair, have fake hair, boobs and nails and dye their skin orange. Yes we had make up but it was cheap and minimal compared to now.

There was no social pressure to have underage PIV sex, let alone do all the porn sec that girls of 14 are expected to do. It’s was all about “petting “ and we were shit scared of getting pregnant.

Yes of course some girls were having sex with their Bf by 6th form, but no one filmed it or showed everyone else photos of it. Now 6th form boys are sexually abusing vulnerable 12 year old girls and posting it on porn hub.

There was no porn in school because it was only magazines and you could easily get caught . Now boys in primary school have porn on their phones and show it to others.

Kids who were bullied at school had respite when they were at home, at weekend and school holidays. Now kids are bullied 24/7.

No pupil died by suicide in the whole time I was at school. Now it’s much more common.[/quote]
Agree with everything you say @CORINNA except being aware of anyone gay or lesbian. People must have definitely hidden it because there was nobody that seemed anything other than 'average' (for want of a better word) in school in my entire school year (300 students per year). No splinter groups s. There was ONE girl who got pregnant and had a baby at 14. She was a really nice but quite an immature, innocent girl that I think was probably flattered by the attention. There was one other girl. I remember her name and what she looked like. I was actually very wary of her, she was ultra confident and looked like a 25 year old woman at 15. She was the talk of the school at one point because she had supposedly had oral sex with a boy. Other than that everyone seemed pretty average at the time. Those 2 girls were the extent of the scandals.

Either schools were magnets for sadists years ago, and a lack of veting and public attitudes allowed them to thrive; or, they were the default occupation for those who had little other career choices and also happened to hate children and the job itself.

Why else could such violence and spiteful behaviour be endorsed by schools and society? Thank heavens things are better now, although there is always room for improvement.

I went on a horseriding weekend with my school. I fell off the horse whilst it was going at what felt like full speed. I remember lying on the ground in pain whilst the other horses and riders ran past me. A teacher eventually came to get me and I was given a wipe to clean up the cut on my back. No hospital trip, no medical advice sought. For years after, if I was slapped on the back, I couldn't breathe, I think I'd probably broken a rib. This was in the late 80's.

Our headteacher taught us some lessons occasionally. He was great.

He set off fireworks on the field for us to see and hear the difference in speed of light and sound. Stood on the roof to teach us about hydraulics and pneumatics being able to lift materials. And he took us swimming and always, ALWAYS stripped down to his black and white stripy trunks and got in the pool for the final 15 mins of the lesson each day.

He also let me walk home in the middle of the school day to let mum know he'd left a VHS tape in our coal spense/cupboard thing in our alleyway that we had loaned him and to make sure it was safely passed on to her.

Primary school 1970-76. Got smacked by one teacher when I was 7 or so for talking. All the others in primary school were nice. They had stopped using the cane in my primary school, but my older brother was definitely caned a few years before.

Piling into a teacher’s Volvo to go to a netball match, 7 girls, some in the boot.

In secondary, there were 2 groups of teachers, the old ex secondary modern, scary ones and the younger, trendier comprehensive school ones. Board rubbers, chalk etc to dodge, cane for the boys, dap for the girls.

Kneeling to ensure your skirt touched the floor. Pencil skirts were all the rage, so being made to sew up too high splits in them.

Going camping with some of the nicer, younger teachers and all of us going to the nearest pub to the camp site when I was in sixth form.

School parties at a local club where everyone was drinking, 16 up.

Sixth form common room where we were actually allowed to smoke. I hated that, hated smoky rooms.

It was a very rough school, and got quite vandalised in places, but I did like it, mostly.

I was in secondary school in the early 80's.
Then, I think a fair proportion of society was homophobic, and the advent of AIDS did absolutely nothing to help matters. The 'gay plague' (yes, it was really referred to as that). 'Queer bashing' was seemingly commonplace (physical assaults on gay men).

Back then, I didn't know a single other pupil who was gay or lesbian, or bi. I am sure some where, but it wasn't known. There would be geeky kids who might be referred to as a 'poof', but that would largely be based on their physicality, or manner.

Some under 16's had sex. A few more claimed to have, but I'm not sure many really did.
Pornography was typically limited to magazines stolen from someone's dad, or occasionally a 'blue movie' if someone had access to their parent's video player without their parents being around AND knew where their dad's video tape was (or it had been hired). This was relatively rare.

'Heavy petting' was as far as most of us got.

Drugs were really just smoking cannabis at parties and still relatively rare. Glue sniffing was a serious issue though. In the early 80's bags of glue would often be found in the street in alcoves or back alleys. I recall it being such a problem, that all sorts of regulations came in to limit the sales of glue and other substances.

I think I started going into pubs at about 14 (I looked older). Most pubs never batted an eye at kids 15 or 16 years old, and I'm sure they knew very well our ages.

I never once saw anybody carrying a knife. People didn't bring weapons into schools. Fights would be fist fights and short lived.

There were no gangs, although there would often be small cliques of friends. There would be 'New Romantic' types or 'Heavy Rockers'. No punks were left. There were a few unto (then) underground stuff like Joy Division, or Echo and the Bunnymen etc, but it was mostly New Romantic or Heavy Rock.

'Fuck' was still a very naughty word
'Cunt' was utterly taboo
'Twat' was getting popular

Uniforms were strictly adhered to, but kids always pushed the boundaries. Thin ties were common (we'd tie a school tie the wrong way round, so the thin end shows). Super fat knots where also a thing.

White socks (for boys!) were a thing AND 'Kickers' footwear was amazingly popular. If you didn't have a pair of Kickers (with lots of 'tags' on them, you were nothing).

'Backing books' (wrapping the covers in a poster, or some form of art) took off. It was the teachers who pushed it, trying to make the writing books last longer, but the kids got creative in using posters of pop groups or football teams)

Some teachers wouldn't think twice about calling someone an 'idiot'.

School trips were quite rare and I'm not sure if there was ever any foreign trip (might have been, but damn rare!)

End of year discos at a local disco / nightclub were common, and I can recall one male PE teacher being surrounded by girls in an alcove.

Bullying happened, and I think most people experienced it at some point. A relative view probably bore the lion's share of it, but as others have said, after school, there'd be some respite.
I never witnessed terrifying bullying (not that I want to grade levels of it). It was usually taunting / name calling / degrading nickname.

British Forces Primary abroad in the late 80s. Had to supervise the younger kids at lunch, including trying to persuade them to eat lunch rather than throw peas. Obviously no choice in the menu either. No teachers to be seen. "Loosely" supervised on all school activities/trips. Very nearly ended up in Hamburg by accident for example as we were told it was 4 stops to our destination when it was 1. If we hadn't seen the teacher on the platform...

British Forces Secondary abroad in the late 80s/early 90s. Showering naked after games. Compulsory after school activities. Gym knickers. Getting merits/demerits and competing as a class for the best score. The bullying which went with that. I grazed my leg pretty badly doing the long jump and just got handed anti septic/cotton wood. Took me ages to get all the sand out. Very much a culture of toughen up.

@TroysMammy

Being slapped on the legs for getting sums wrong. It happened to my friend and because I had copied her wrong answers and was next in line I wet myself.

Sorry this made me loool

Headmistress coming into our class of 7 year olds with her slipper in hand, as a threat for those who might be naughty.

Girls learning sewing/knitting whilst boys did basketwork.

Girls playing netball/hockey whilst boys played cricket/football.

Communal girls’ showers from 9-13, embarrassing as I developed early. Also the female PE teacher shouting at a girl in our class by name to tell her to make sure that she washed properly in the shower - she did smell but looking back now, she was obviously suffering from neglect.

Teacher having a relationship with a fifth year boy.

School trip where we all got soaked and a teacher told my friend that she had won the wet t-shirt competition, then a few days later “accidentally” exposing himself to her,

In P3 being dragged out of class by the teacher for daydreaming and not paying attention. The reality was I was trying not to fall asleep after being up late because if I was still awake when my dad came home from the pub he wouldn’t hit my mum.

I was slapped, caned and had the board rubber thrown at me. (In primary)

We were expected to eat everything on our plate at lunch.
If not you got the cane.

Mash potatoes served with an ice cream baller that always seemed to have 1 raw bit inside.

If you got under 16/20 on a test you had to line up and were slapped on the legs or caned.

Bunking off was so easy. No one knew where you were and the teachers didn’t care

I think virtually everyone over the age of 12 smoked. I didn’t but I was the only one in my year that I knew of who didn’t smoke.

Teachers room was a cloud of smoke.

@Thecazelets

Lots of casual racism. The only black child in my primary school class was given the drums to play in a music lesson because the teacher said he would have 'natural rhythm'. Early 1970s.

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.

Omg, are you me? Female PE teachers making us shower naked, watching, choosing who to humiliate by making them run in and turn on the shower which was up a height. Same teacher throwing a basketball at kids’ heads and when they cried, saying it served them right.

The French teacher telling us who the best looking girl was-all female Catholic convent school.

Science teacher throwing wooden board rubbers with remarkable accuracy.

I was slapped across the face and had my hair pulled by teachers. This was probably around 1984-86 and corporal punishment was outlawed in 1986. I would have been about 5-6 years old when it happened. But that sort of treatment would never have been permissible even before caning was banned. Teachers just thought they could abuse kids in any way they liked. I told my mother and she went to school and pulled the teacher’s hair until some of it came out by the roots.

I had a lovely experience in what would now be called year eight in around 1974.

I was day dreaming in class and when the male teacher suddenly focused on me and I struggled to reply, he got me to come to the front and bend over his table where he pretended to spank me with a long ruler for a good few minutes.

I never mentioned it to my parents!

I was at an all girls school. On our first Biology lesson we were asked who had started their periods and then when you started your period you had to announce it in the next biology lesson. There was a chart.
In the sixth form we had a special teacher brought in to talk about sexual health. We were taught that cervical cancer was probably caught from truck drivers who didn’t change their underpants. I believed this for far too long.
The music teacher used to rap our knuckles with a ruler. We didn’t have to do anything wrong, it was random.

Wow - I went to school in the 60s and 70s (not in the UK) and my experiences were nothing like some of the ones mentioned on here! Girls did cooking and sewing classes, boys did woodwork, but one girl in my class did woodwork so it wasn't frowned upon. I look back on my schooldays fondly.

Having chalk hurled at us for not paying attention. Drinking in the pub with the younger teachers.

Being made to rehem my school skirt at lunchtime because it was too short. I had one year when I grew really fast. None of the boys had to rehem their trousers.

I started primary in 1985. I don't think there was much different to be honest other than there was no security at the school. Just one small gate that was never locked. Very different to today's schools which are like Fort Knox.

In the US:

No one EVER mentioned clothing or had any sort of uniform. We could wear absolutely anything we wanted without any comment from teachers, which would have been seen as way below their dignity and not their job.

No one EVER said or implied that girls and boys were different from one another in their abilities or tastes. Would have been seen as shockingly sexist and prejudiced.

Teachers giving lifts and occasionally being more like friends with students, but not in a creepy way. In university, lots of friendships and relationships between students and teachers, not always a healthy situation!

People read a lot of books, and studied a lot of serious, complete texts from a young age. When I was 13, we read and studied intensely: The Tempest, A Tale of Two Cities, Brave New World, Animal Farm, An anthology of short stories, and other books. This class was 44 years ago, but I still remember it.

No national curriculum, so teachers had freedom and power to introduce us to things they loved.

Communal showers after P.E. where the teacher would supervise naked in the shower herself.
Girls did typing and needlework, boys did technical drawing.
But, yes, genuinely individual teacher centred education at Primary, we only ever did art/crafts/nature study in the afternoons.

@Bluedeblue

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.

OMG! This. I could’ve written this as my exact memories of high school. We were given tea towel sized towels to dry ourselves with after those communal showers. It felt like we were in prison. The “supervising” PE teacher was openly gay and we all used to think that she was checking us out. She looked like Giles Brandreth.

Secondary school 90s

Smoking in the toilets or school field was normal. Teachers turned a blind eye. Graffiti all over the walls

One of the teachers was well known fo touch girls bums and swear. Nobody thought much of it. My mum wrote to the head to complain and the teacher confronted me and asked me why I told my mum about him: he was horrible to me ever after

The canteen didn't have a queue. If was a mosh pit / scrum Only the toughest made it to the front of the serving hatch