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!

I started school in '74, no recollection of corporal punishment or anything sinister, more a lack of health and safety rules.

When I was unwell at school (aged 5) my brother (8) was called upon to take me home.

The school secretary was the go-to person for pulling out wobbly teeth.

In 6th form we had small group 'fun' sessions each week and one time the teacher took us out for a surprise - clay pigeon shooting.

I was at school from 1973 until 1986.

We had to stand in the corner with the dunces hat on if the teacher decided you hadn't done well enough.

If you got your times tables or spellings wrong you stood on your chair or desk until you got them right.

Teaching hitting your hand with a ruler - randomly.

Boys going to the Headteacher for 'six of the best'. Girls didn't receive this punishment.

Teachers going to the pub at lunchtime.

Teachers stepping out of class for a fag in the middle of lesson.

In sixth form going to the teachers house for the evening.

Teacher regularly taking the whole class to the local bakery cafe instead of lesson. We all failed that subject!

Girls studying cooking, sewing, childcare, shorthand and typing. Boys studying woodwork, metal work, engineering drawing.

Sixth formers having affairs with teachers.

The remedial group for 'retards', shocking that this was how they were openly referred to. Even more shocking is that most of them are leading very ordinary lives now, a couple of the remedial group are very high flying professionally which shows they were perhaps slow developers or just wrongly categorized.

A pregnant student being banned from school for the shame she'd bring upon the school name.

Litter picking - the Headteacher would come out of his office every break time and hand out rubbish bags to whoever was unlucky enough to be there and tell them not to stop until they'd filled the rubbish bags he'd given them.

The weekly spellings in tobacco tins.

Some of the lovely things:

A nature table in every primary school class. It was so exciting to find a lovely feather, shell, conker, leaf etc to display.

A pet in every classroom and taking turns to take the pet home at weekends or holidays.

No national Curriculum so the teachers were free to teach interesting lesson content. Lessons could be changed at the drop of a hat to reflect events. If it was a nice day teacher could decide to take us for a nature trail in the local woods with no parental consent. Or it it was sunny we could just sit out on the field and enjoy the sunshine.

Everyone just went to the nearest school unlike today's jostling to get into the 'best' school.

Kids smoking in the toilets and behind the sportshall.
Spending our dinner money on fags.
Skiving off whenever we felt like it.
In our top class junior school we didn't do afternoon lessons other than PE (basically rounders, netball/football for the boys.
We also had a beauty contest. The boys got to judge the girls, and everyone was graded from last to first.

be forced to learn Russian against my will

I went to school the same years as you OP. In primary any children who were late for school had to line up at the teacher's desk with their hands out and she would go along the line and hit them on their hands with a leather belt. All just accepted as completely normal when I was 7

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.

A nature table in every primary school class. It was so exciting to find a lovely feather, shell, conker, leaf etc to display.

A pet in every classroom and taking turns to take the pet home at weekends or holidays.

No national Curriculum so the teachers were free to teach interesting lesson content. Lessons could be changed at the drop of a hat to reflect events. If it was a nice day teacher could decide to take us for a nature trail in the local woods with no parental consent. Or it it was sunny we could just sit out on the field and enjoy the sunshine.

On a happier note, these are all things I remember too! We got house points for bringing stuff in for the nature table

Kids smoking in the toilets and behind the sportshall

I had my first cigarette, aged 11, behind the sports hall. Sometimes the 'cool' teachers would join us.

No parents cars outside or in the car park
Everyone walked or came by bus

Where the hell did you go to school???
I'm very similar age, and we didn't have capital punishment, or naked showers,

Secondary school in 2003 and I was having my maths book thrown at my head....

I am shocked reading these though. I know 'it was a different time' and all, I just didnt realise HOW different.

We didn't have capital punishment (secondary started 78)

I went to school in South Wales. It was very chapel-y and close knit and the older teachers had been teaching since the 1940s, so they really were from another era.

On your birthday you had to go in front of the school and choose one of these three options, say for example it's your 8th birthday:

Claps - If you chose claps then the whole school would clap 8 times

Hair pulls - the teacher would pull your hair 8 times

Smacks - you went over your teacher's knee with your bum in the air and they would smack your bottom 8 times

Most kids went for smacks

Smoking lounge for students.

Sex education consisted of a Business/typing teacher (only girls did typing) who sat down at the front of an all girls class and told the girls wisely to:

"wait for the right man".

that was IT.

Primary school was good though. One of the teachers lived on a farm and she brought a lamb in one day to talk about. .

It was lovely.

Primary school in the late ‘70s

Racism, pretty rife. Home reader was a book the name of which I won’t mention but thankfully as good as banned now.

Corporal punishment meted out by ‘the belt’ which was assigned a very racist nickname.

Gym class in vest and knickers.

Girls doing needlework whilst boys played football.

Getting called ‘handicapped’ by teachers because I was very small for my age.

Getting smacked for getting spelling words wrong.

Teacher telling the class that my mum was in ‘the mental hospital’. She was indeed in a mental health ward, but the teacher found this info from another teacher who lived next to my granny who was looking after me when my mum was in hospital. My granny didn’t take that one lying down thank fuck and slapped her neighbours face. My granny was a legend.

Everything else my dad complained to the school, the district board and his MP about. He is still a legend.

Public humiliations.

Bullying by teachers.

Scapegoating of some pupils.

Horrible language which would be considered unPC now.

Not treating children as individuals.

Nasty school dinners and uncomfortable uniforms.

Thankfully, none of this happened when I was at school. None of the above posts. I was at secondary in the late 80's. None. So at least that's better.

Schools encourage lesbians to self harm

How do schools do this?

Weekly Spellings Handed out in Golden Virginia tobacco Tins 😁

@Howshouldibehave

Schools encourage lesbians to self harm

How do schools do this?

By recommending breast binders

@Bryonyshcmyony

We didn't have capital punishment (secondary started 78)

Can I just draw people's attention to the difference between corporal punishment and capital punishment

Communal showers which were in a long line. You had to drop your towel before you went in and go the length of the showers to pick it up from the teacher at the other end. This was in the 80s and we were 13/14 so great age to make you do that!