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 one was gay (1970s), not even the lead singer of Queen! It was something taboo. teachers smoked like chimneys. Senior Maths teacher 'helped' out with PE and would wander the boys changing rooms, smacking bare bottoms and getting a 'thank you, sir' from the recipient. this was up to about 4th year. One boy mistakenly thought to be laughing at a teacher was hoisted out of his chair, thrown against the wall and lifted up by his throat. He was the 1st XI cricket and football captain and a nicer boy you couldnt meet! Friend of mine went to a Catholic Girls school and shiny shoes were not allowed in case someone could see a girls knickers in the reflection. If a girl had to sit on a mans lap, a phone book was recommended in between the sitter and sat upon.

I remember board rubbers been thrown endlessly during lessons, one horrible teacher used to punch the air with delight if he was particularly pleased with the force of impact.

I remember school trips using least number of coaches possible. Always 3 children for every 2 seats, often children sitting in the aisle.

My favourite part of the week in primary, was Friday afternoons after teachers had had their lunchtime trip to the pub and we'd have silent reading and extra long playtime.

Primary school:
Country dancing lessons on the radio when I was 8 or 9, so about 1976.
A “street party” in the playground for the Queen’s silver jubilee and us being given a commemorative teaspoon in a box. Possibly a commemorative coin too.
Making the teachers tea and coffee at break time.
Lessons outside by the nature pond in good weather.
Sports day at the nearby park as school had no playing field. I guess random members of the public could have watched along with the parents, but it didn’t cross my mind back then. Thankfully our PE kit was shorts and a T-shirt, not knickers and vest!
Secondary school:
Yes to the humiliation of communal showering with the (gay) PE teacher taking towels from us. It was just as embarrassing for the early developers like me as it must have been for the late developers. I think showers were only supervised for the first year or so and after that we were left to get on with it, so we took our bra straps down and kept our underwear on, wrapped the towel around us and dodged in and out, emerging with wet hair and shoulders.
Yes to inappropriate teacher-pupil relationships. I saw one trendy teacher at our school with two girls who would have been about 15 in his red MG.
I remember a few of us girls being taken home by car by another pupil’s father, who we didn’t know at all, although he was a member of the PTA, after spending the evening knocking on doors asking for donations for a jumble sale. No doubt no risk assessments done and no such thing as DRB checks.
The school minibuses were aged, rusting things with bench seats along the sides and no seat belts.
Dyslexia, ADHD, etc were unheard of. Kids were just labelled as thick or naughty, and ignored, punished or put in a special class.
Secondary school was a huge culture shock. Moving from a small (one class per year) primary, with no uniform, to a big new secondary was difficult. We had to grapple with blouses that had to buttoned up to the neck, and ties, and find our way around the site after just one afternoon’s induction, consisting of a few tests and a quick tour. Many of the subjects such as science and facilities such as labs were completely new to us.
When my dds moved to secondary school, I think they had a week-long induction.
I also remember some girls smoking in the toilets and a haze of smoke coming out of the sixth form common room.
It never occurred to us to complain about girls doing needlework and cookery, and boys doing woodwork and metalwork, or about girls not being allowed to wear trousers.

Agreeing with others who say for any perceived wrong doing you got the belt , a thick leather strap brought down hard by teacher lifting their arm and whacking down on your wee upturned hand , it often left your hand red raw and stinging . Some teachers had a reputation for being “ good at the belt” mainly the bigger male teachers and some put it on their table to show you what would happen should you dare to misbehave.
If you were given the belt sometimes even two or three of the belt you might complain at home but I’m guessing everyone got the same answer from parents which was you must have deserved it! Teachers word was law!
I have no recollection of any of my friends classmates parents ever going up to the school to complain it just didn’t happen!
Saying that I enjoyed school many happy memories but hated the belt I got it once for sneezing and trying to stifle it, teacher thought I laughed so out I had to go to front of the class three of the belt very painful!
I don’t think many avoided it in those days.

Oh and as someone else said, you either walked to school or got a bus no one ever got a lift , if you had a car it was needed to get your dad to work no one would ever have thought of taking children in it!
One time I was in my last year and it was a freezing dark harsh Scottish winter, it was raining down too, I had started usual two mile walk home and a boy in my class whose dad was well off and had a car( it was the talk of the school! ) stopped and gave me a lift! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! Always remembered it!
Makes me laugh because later if I didn’t drop my children off quite close enough to entrance of the school they moaned !

I went to school in the late 1950s and early 1960s so a bit before the OP.

All the things other posters have mentioned: corporal punishments, being bullied by teachers, sitting with hands on heads, detention, being made to write "lines" and so on.

At age 10 I was so badly bullied by a head teacher that I had a mini breakdown and failed the 11 plus as a result. She took another childs word above mine (with no substantive proof) and bullied me until I confessed to something I had not done. If a teacher behaved like that now they would lose their job and get their ass sued. However in those days teachers were untouchable and working class parents did not question them.

In those days there were not the extra activities that there are now - and few school outings. I was never able to go because my parents did not have the money for the extra bus fares or admission. When I was 14 the school organized a 2 week trip to Paris for the children who were learning French. The headmaster offered my parents a bursary because I was good at languages and he knew there was not the money. My father refused to sign the consent form because he felt it was "charity".

@Papergirl1968

^Country dancing lessons on the radio when I was 8 or 9, so about 1976.
A “street party” in the playground for the Queen’s silver jubilee and us being given a commemorative teaspoon in a box. Possibly a commemorative coin too.^

We’re the same age.

I did those country dancing lessons too! Never realised it was off the radio.

We also had a school ‘street party’ in 1977. We had to wear red, white & blue for the day. I think there must have been some kind of organised performance for the parents too, as I can remember rehearsing marching up & down singing ‘There’ll always be an England’.
I’ve still got my commemorative coin. Never got a teaspoon though - jealous now!

Ah yes the 1977 Jubilee street party organised by all the grown ups. You could tell it was a special occasion because the meat paste sandwiches were cut into triangles .

I remember being threatened with the slipper for running around the cloakroom. I just had to stand outside the headmaster's room though. (Nearly shat myself!). Wearing those bloody PE knickers. The goblin looking PE teacher and all her worshipful pets that followed her around. The one lesbian (well, apart from the PE teacher!). She was quite exotic being 1) Gay and 2) From Cyprus!

Hated my school days but loved the school dinners! I sometimes had seconds and thirds! All of us greedy gutses acted like we had been starved!

Some of the kids were quite violent and I also remember a teacher shortage that always seemed to affect only the middle band (not the clever kids or the ones that watched videos all day!).

Traunting as often as I did sadly missed the sewing teacher (an absolute bitch) and the science teacher (very scarey) fighting on the stairs!

The Headmaster (married) and one of my teachers (another bitch) were having an affair. She hated me - dunno why , I was quiet and shy! She decided I had problems and it was arranged that I go to speech therapy. I had no problems there. I was good at English and would help others to read, but they latched on to my being crap at maths!!

When the other kids were reading Janet and John, I was reading dad's sci fi and horror books! Mum never questioned the teacher but I think in those days most parents didn't.

One of my brothers went to the same school. He hated sports but loved music and kids would call him 'pouf'. If you go in an argument with another kid, a gang would follow you home to beat you up outside your house! I was very careful for this not to happen so put up with a lot but wasn't 'picked on', everyone got bullied at some point. I remember one very silly little girl who used to slap my legs. I knew that if I retaliated I would have got into trouble, not her. In my dreams though........

Watching BBC Schools programming live on a tv on wheeled into the classroom.

Being made to do gym in your vest and pants if you had forgotten your PE kit, I'm not sure how old I was when that stopped.

My registration/ technical teacher was a dirty pervert. He had porn mags in his room which he justified by saying they were photography magazines he used for that class. He took a huge interest in the prettiest girl in the class and her parents allowed him to use her as a photography model. I've often wondered since then whether or not he abused her.

Hopefully, autistic kids like me don't get seen as weirdos now by both kids and teachers and actually get some support.

Another thing I remember is a child who frequently came into school filthy at around the age of 6. The teachers used to strip her off and put her in the big sink to wash her and give her clean clothes. Obviously that was an act of caring and not abuse but it would not be allowed to happen now.

This will out me if you were in my class...

The girl with the biggest breasts had to stand at the front of the physics class and jump up and down to 'prove the theory of gravity'

Also, when we went into sixth form (1986), we were asked not to wear anything too tight or revealing, as it might 'distract the male teachers'.

Fuck, I wish I'd said something.

@LIZS

Watching BBC Schools programming live on a tv on wheeled into the classroom.

Yes! I remember watching the raising of the Mary Rose. And also one year we watched the Wimbledon ladies’ final in class (it was still held on the last Friday of the tournament then). Wasn’t even a PE lesson, so I’m assuming the teacher just wanted to watch the tennis and wasn’t willing to miss it for a pesky thing like teaching, lol.

Also, when we went into sixth form (1986), we were asked not to wear anything too tight or revealing, as it might 'distract the male teachers'.

One of our sixth form (male) teachers told us that another male teacher had complained that the sixth form girls all wore too low cut tops and they were distracting. Apparently all the other male teachers - including the maths teacher - laughed and asked what was wrong with him. This was mid 90s. I really hope that’s changed.

I’ve thought of another thing.

My junior school (75-79) had its own swimming pool - very random as not a private school or even remotely posh. It was sort of indoor-outdoor? Separate from the main building, under a dome made of corrugated plastic.

Swimming lessons were weekly and compulsory for everyone. We had separate boys’ & girls’ changing rooms but the plastic dome was only semi-opaque and had a few holes in places, so the boys would sometimes run outside and try to peer in and catch a glimpse of the girls getting changed. The teacher came in the pool with us and would change with us as well. I distinctly remember one boy bragging that he’d peeked through the hole and seen ‘Mrs B’s hairy minge’!!

You progressed through the swimming lessons by earning a series of rewards for specific milestones. They were called ‘flashes’ and were little bits of different coloured ribbons that you got [your mum] to sew onto your swimming costume. I failed due to never wanting to complete ‘First flash’ which was to sit down on the bottom of the pool. I could do the next few things on the list but they would never let me have the ribbons for those until I’d got that first one.

On certain days (like end of year, or breaking up for Christmas), we'd have a reel to reel projector rolled into the hall, and the entire school would watch Abbot and Costello films! (they were old, even in the late 70's).

Where the heck did they get reel to reel films from???

Assisting the children to remove their wobbly teeth.

@JoveWhenHeSawMyFannysFace

Also, when we went into sixth form (1986), we were asked not to wear anything too tight or revealing, as it might 'distract the male teachers'.

One of our sixth form (male) teachers told us that another male teacher had complained that the sixth form girls all wore too low cut tops and they were distracting. Apparently all the other male teachers - including the maths teacher - laughed and asked what was wrong with him. This was mid 90s. I really hope that’s changed.

Mid 90's? Jesus.

I'd forgotten half of this stuff.

Our RE teacher at primary school told us that her brother was in the Navy, and he had been washed overboard. Apparently, Jesus got him out of the water and popped him back on deck

Also, when we were 10, one of the girls in our class gave our male teacher a Valentines card. He ripped it up in front of us all, and shouted at her. Absolute disgrace.

Also, when we were 10, one of the girls in our class gave our male teacher a Valentines card. He ripped it up in front of us all, and shouted at her. Absolute disgrace.

I was Christmas!

Primary school in the 80s - can’t remember if this was Y2 or Y3 but school trip to the British Museum where we were all just allowed to wander round on our own for the day, completing a worksheet as we went. Probably not particularly dangerous but I can’t see schools letting 6 / 7 / 8 year olds do that now.

And jumping over the (unfenced) pond at breaktimes. I was never brave enough to try it lengthways but plenty were.

Secondary school:

• perennially drunk economics teacher. He would hide in the copying room. Sometimes had to be taken home by another teacher.
• vicious, bullying English teacher. He was indiscriminate in his bullying, pupils or other staff could be victims. Once punched a parent for making some fairly innocuous comment about his name. Decades later was sent to prison for historic offences against two boys in DB's year.
• school minibus (used for transporting sports teams to away events) was a total rust bucket. The people at the back of the minibus used to have to hold the rear doors closed. You did get a wonderful sense of speed as you could see the tarmac passing under your feet where the floor of the minibus had rusted through.

@0None0 same here. Secondary school 1981 and when I said I wanted to read the news, instead of being giving journalism advice, was told to be a secretary!

Started secondary in 1989 and left 1994. We had the stark naked after pe showers that a pp mentioned. Horrendous! Also had to wear tiny ‘knicker shorts’ for pe while the boys wore long shorts and blatantly perved over us all. Male pe teacher would regularly wander in and out of the changing rooms while we were naked. One teacher used to invite us all to his home at the weekends to study! Another teacher used to laugh at a ‘slow’ boy in our class and call him ‘bullet’. We used to get regularly flashed at at the bus stop after school. Had a pervert teacher who would say we were looking tense and offer a back massage. I could go on!

Also had a day trip to France age 11. Whole class allowed to wander round Calais on our own. Boys ended up buying knives and fireworks. Our coach got stopped at the french border because of it and we got back to uk 6 hours late! All this at an ordinary comp in a ‘leafy’ part of sw london