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!

Ha ha yes blimey we had neither 🤣

I started school in 1971 officially and I literally don’t recognise much of this , I must live in some kind of parallel universe . Teachers were definitely ruder to the pupils , and people smoked but that was about it .

Corporal punishment ended in state schools in 1987.

As a pupil I saw it last being dealt out in about 1963.

As a teacher from 1978 it was not used, or even on the table as a thing, as it were. Probably banned by ILEA.

Had a teacher put his hand in my blouse. Said he was fixing my tie. Same teacher followed me into the bathroom. Made puking noises after a few uncomfortable minutes of staying in the cubicle waiting for him to go. Told my mum who made a complaint. Next lesson he stands in front of the class and says that I don’t know when someone is just being friendly
Had a teacher mark my technical drawing down from an a to a b because he didn’t believe I had drawn it saying I’d got my older brother to do it

I was at primary school through the 80's and went to a lovely little village CofE school where the teachers were lovely and there was no caning or anything like that! But we did have one boy who would frequently just bolt out of the school and sprint several miles home, you'd never see it coming you'd be just sat reading or out playing a game on the playground, sometimes he'd be mid conversation with you and then from out of nowhere he'd just turn on his heels and flee! The teachers did try to stop him but he was just so hard to predict and was very fast. You knew he'd leg it at some point every day, just not when! I can't imagine that kind of thing being allowed to continue these days!

In secondary school during the 90's there were several rumours of students having affairs with teachers although I have no idea if any of them were true. We did have a male PE teacher who was sacked for punching a student, he'd long had a reputation for smacking the boys about but apparently a full on punch was just too far.

I started prep in the 80s

Saturday morning school which was dedicated to sport
Elocution and lattin lessons
All children able to read independently by 5
Diner lady checks all food was eaten
Learning to type on an electric or manual type writer
No teacher presents

Yes board rubbers being hurled as humiliation and shouting

Exam results up on wall with a red line separating passes from the FAILURES and being told in front of peers.

On the positive side, teachers seemed to have a lot more freedom to teach what they wanted and not just stick to the lesson plans (if they even had to write them for every single lesson!) - for example I loved hearing the French teachers’ stories about their experiences and life in France - which was much more interesting and educational than the content in the textbook.

You had those really eccentric teachers who would go off on a tangent!

The belt.
Blackboard rubbers thrown at you.
Lines.
Girls got sewing. Boys got woodwork.
Boys got football. Girls got hockey.

Semolina with a spoon of jam for pudding. And being made to eat it 🤮
A quarter bottle of milk which was usually left out in the warm. Which you were made to drink. I’ve never taken milk since.

Do the people saying "Where the hell did you go to school?" not believe that there was corporal punishment in schools in the 70s? It's pretty well known that there was.

Sorry it's the DM but this is proof there was corporal punishment in the 70s/80s
www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122724/amp/Records-reveal-corporal-punishment-dished-schools-1970s-Found-cellar-Greenfield-Primary-School-Oldham-Greater-Manchester.html

@PuffinDodger

Do the people saying "Where the hell did you go to school?" not believe that there was corporal punishment in schools in the 70s? It's pretty well known that there was.

Yes, my mum was very vocally anti it and checked with the school much to my embarrassment before I started in 1978

Yes to corporal punishment. The slipper was in frequent use in my 1970s primary school.

In my school they put all the educationally challenged kids in the tower !

God OP how awful. I went to school five years after you and things had improved a lot. Some teachers were unpleasant, one was a bully and I fondly remember the time a kids dad came to school and gave him a taste of his own medicine.

Thank god things are better now and children are treated like humans.

Dh grew up in South Africa where there was a lot of corporal punishment and he remembers some parents of a child who was being hit turning up at the school and sort of dragging the teacher out of the room

Male PE and maths teachers snogging female students at cheesy club nights

Also, not school but when I was at a French uni, one of the lecturers resting his feet up on the desk and lighting a cigarette (late 90s).

I loved school. My teachers were all kind, except one or two horrors who threw board rubbers and chalk. We used to do ‘cross country’ running - we were tipped out to run around the streets unsupervised. And for geography and history were often dispatched into the locality to look at stuff (once about 12 of us just went to my house; my granny was staying with us. She made us all tea and toast.)

Things were very difficult at home during my teen years. The kindness shown to me by staff and the security I felt at school directly influenced my decision to become a secondary school teacher. I have been doing it for 25 years and love it.

This is horrendous! No wonder so many adults have issues.

School in 90s was doing PE kit in your underwear (primary school). Also being told the staff would come in and look at your if you were too slow getting changed (secondary school). Generally way less sympathetic. Got told if we still couldn't understand one of the science topics we should consider suicide. Was supposed to be a joke.

Having to have showers after PE.

@0None0

Boys first on the tegister

I don't remember that, I think we were in order of birthday. However, I went to an all girls' secondary school so can't remember as far back as primary and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that was the case.

Teachers tended to deal with stuff themselves and only called in parents for really serious misdemeanours.

Not my school or era but I remember my next door neighbour telling me that her daughter was caned in the 60s for not getting full marks in a test. She pulled her out of that particular class.

Lots of strikes in the 80s but fortunately not much in my school (I only really remember the art teacher going on strike which was no great loss to my uncreative self).

And yes communal showering after PE.

Late 70’s, two consecutive male PE teachers having relationships with 6th form girls. The first one left with the girl to go and live on a boat/travel.

Science teacher worked on a drugs helpline, turned out to be a dealer.

I'm a year older than you op and don't remember anything as extreme as you describe. Corporal punishment was rumoured at our primary school - if someone got sent to the head we'd all say they were getting the slipper. I don't know if it ever actually happened, I doubt it tbh.

I think my High School was quite progressive for it's time. Lessons weren't split by gender, we all did cookery, sewing and woodwork. We petitioned the school to allow girls to wear trousers and they agreed.

I remember a lot of homophobia though. For some reason lemons were synonymous with lesbians. Giving someone a lemon scented gift was calling them gay which was a huge insult and something capable of following you for your whole school career.

I remember at my 6th form college the students had a common room where smoking was allowed. There was a permanent blue cloud under the ceiling.

we didn't have capital punishment, or naked showers

@TheVampiresWife

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

No national curriculum sounds good until you moved from a school that hadn't covered something to a school that had. I remember going from being academically 'bright' to being utterly lost and getting 0/10s overnight.