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!

are you North West. Because 'Head' bags were all the rage here!

About 1983-4 ish.

They were good old days in many ways. Ultimately they were different times, partly for the better, partly for the worse.

But they were also our childhood, which for many was a golden time. For a few, not so much.

I always remember a teacher humiliating a child who I'm pretty sure was dyslexic. Laughing at his writing in front of us all.

I was called Half-caste on many occasions.

I remember board rubbers being thrown. Someone getting a ruler on his hand (I think the same child as above actually). People having to stand in corners with their backs turned.

Secondary school was brutal! But I expect I would find it so now too - I was a geeky child. The (young, good looking) art teacher apparently had lots of affairs with female pupils. He wore tight trousers and a pencil tie.

Climbing up a wooden ladder onto the roof when it was your turn to check the weather station!! It was my turn when it had snow and ice so for a child with dyspraxia or clumsy child syndrome as it was the called I'm amazed I got down unscathed!!

Also breaking thermometers by accident and flicking the balls of Mercury at each other!!!

Oh and playing marbles on the drain covers.

Most of the above rings true. I started secondary in 1981 and there were communal showers but the female PE teachers were human enough not to insist.

Senior male teacher who paid literally non-stop inappropriate attention to girls, including always being around for trampolining lessons.

Female teacher grooming 14-15 year old boy and later having an affair with another.

Teachers having affairs with each other's husbands/wives. This seemed to happen a lot.

Music teacher habitually arriving 20-30 minutes late for 45 minute lessons. For years.

@VerticalHorizon

are you North West. Because 'Head' bags were all the rage here!

About 1983-4 ish.

No, South Wales, but it was 83-84 they were popular there, too (I don't live there anymore). My first year of secondary school.

At the start of the final year of junior school (Y6 in modern terms) the girls were taken to the hall for a talk about periods whilst the boys voted which of the girls would be 'Queen' of the village carnival. After the talk, the girls had to line up at the back of the classroom whilst the teacher announced the winner.

Towards the end of the same school year we had a week away. Almost everything we did that term was based on the trip (eg. art projects to be started during the trip and finished at school after, history project about the area completed by visiting a museum, writing based on planning what we would be doing and the end of term play, written by a teacher, was based on the trip). 2 children were not able to go- looking back they were from large poorer families so almost certainly just couldn't afford to go. When we were all learning about where we were going, planning our trip, writing about where we went etc they had to sit in a corner of the classroom with some worksheets.

On the last night of that trip there we had a disco and we were told at the start of the week that girls could only go if they were asked by a boy. We had to enter the disco room holding hands and then there was a compulsory slow dance. The whole thing was very awkward and unnecessary. In hindsight I wish we'd all refused and stayed in our rooms!

The Safety Videos on the last day of summer term. They're still burned into my memory.

A bit before the 1980s. I graduated from high school in 1973 (grade 12).

My classes were huge, at least 40, usually more. We had portable buildings.

In Junior High (grade 8, 9) girls could only wear skirts and dresses, no trousers. It was freezing in winter. Wearing nylon stockings was the thing, but they required a garter belt. I remember trying to wrestle them back on after PE, and enduring twisted stockings the rest of the day.

Our skirts had to touch the floor when we knelt down.

PE was horrible, with rampant favouritism such as the best athletes picking the teams.

In grade 7 the teacher threw chalk and erasers. He also hit kids with a yardstick in front of the class. He did this to a girl wearing a mini dress. She had to bend over and we saw everything.

We had to walk in single file in the halls. We ate lunch in assigned classrooms in silence.

By Senior High I don't remember corporal punishment, just huge classes.

@iklboo

The Safety Videos on the last day of summer term. They're still burned into my memory.

I particularly remember the one where the boy flew his kite near power lines and another one where a boy went to rescue his football from an electricity sub station!

@iklboo

The Safety Videos on the last day of summer term. They're still burned into my memory.

I remember one where a kid was playing on railway lines and got his legs cut off by a train.

I remember the trains one. Horrible. I think they had to send letters home to get parental permission to show it.

Ha Ha! That kid was somebody I went to school with.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

Ha Ha! That kid was somebody I went to school with.

Do you mean he was the actor in the film or it actually happened to him?

Oh sorry - the actor

Honestly those safety videos were horrific but I think did probably lead to us all having a certain level of common sense that appears to be lacking in some people these days.

66 - 78
Yes, the physical assaults wouldn't be tolerated now. We had one teacher who would take down pants to spank "wrongdoers" - over her knee at the front of the class. 8 year olds. I remember one girl being hit with a pencil case and getting a black eye - no repercussions as far as I know.

DSis left school totally unable to read or write. Consigned to remedial classes - and let's face it - no remedial work undertaken. These kids were written off. She was diagnosed as dyslexic as an adult. I'd like to think that wouldn't happen now.

One positive- and this might be subjective- is that I remember a lot less focus on exam results and getting to university. (Only 8% did) Where I lived, getting an apprenticeship at the likes of Rolls Royce or Motorola were probably as acclaimed as getting university entrance. The YOP scheme (forerunner of the YTS) provided pretty decent employment opportunities for non academic leavers. I get a sense now that it's university or you've failed.

Chemistry teacher who, if you were late for his class, summoned you over to his desk, opened a jar, and made you smell it. The jar contained ammonia.

History teacher who gave a boy of Indian descent an extra mark because "all of this must be very hard for you given where you come from". Another boy had the courage to say "Sir, don't you think that's a bit racist?" to which the teacher barked "RACIST? I GAVE HIM AN EXTRA MARK"

At state schools in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.

Primary school:
Children were given the slipper.
Teachers called one girl "half-caste".
They told us we would end up like the child with a disability if we weren't careful.
The child with lesbian parents was told they were "queer and unnatural" and would burn for all eternity in hell.
Boys did cooking and sewing and boys did woodwork and metalwork.
We spent the months before the 11+ doing constant exam practice, and then spent the rest of the year having virtually no lessons, just doing general knowledge quizzes.
There was a level of bullying that wouldn't be tolerated these days.

Secondary school:
Children from well-off families who failed the 11+ could still go to a grammar school if they spent the first year as a fee-paying boarder.
A pupil was expelled for becoming pregnant.
One of the teachers was so incompetent (and possibly also drunk) that the top two sets in his subject swapped places when he taught the top set.

I started school in 1981 and recognise much of the OP. Communal naked showers all the way through secondary school (so up to age 16) which were hideous and put me off PE and sport completely. I remember flying board rubbers and a boy getting smacked in a lesson while we all silently watched. I'd forgotten the boys first registers but yep, those too.

At school 1975 to 1988. At an all girls secondary, where a teacher routinely pinging bra straps and 'choosing' someone to go into the store cupboard was unremarked on. PE was on a field by a railway bridge, which had 'trainspotters' with binoculars trained on the PE skirts and gym knickers. Corporal punishment in primary.

"The good olde days.." child abuse, sexual abuse rife, bullied and humiliation from teachers , corporate punishment ie the cane. Being forced to change and shower naked.

Yes the good old days....

I started secondary in 1980 and we regularly had board rubbers thrown at us in class. The Head of Year also caned people in his study. The Head was rarely seen without his mortar board and gown.

You never got any support - if you struggled with a concept then tough.

In Chemistry in the weekly verbal tests, if you got a question wrong you had to stand up and were asked more questions. Get the next one wrong, you stood on the lab stool, then it was the bench, then the lab stool on top of the bench. If you got the final question wrong g you spent the lesson standing in a bin. And you never went into the storeroom with that teacher if you were female.

In the infants we weren't taught to read and write like children ads today. We were taught ITA which was an experimental learning system that ran together sounds. Unfortunately I could already read a bit when I started school and remember being smacked for writing properly rather than writing ITA.

Also tiny milk bottles with hot rancid milk that had been left by the radiator for a couple of hours. I was allergic to milk but still made to drink it. Regularly threw up.

Teacher coming in to the 6th Year Common room, asking who was over 18 and handing me a fiver to go to the offie for a half bottle of Grouse for him.