I was very happy at primary school, but I remember some of the more creative methods teachers used to humiliate naughty children, in the mid 80s. For low-level naughtiness, there was a lot of humiliating children in front of the class, or even the whole school. Here are some I remember. It's a long one, and most of these memories make me smile.
Two children who laughed when they were told off were made to laugh in a mirror.
When two boys messed about in assembly, the head asked a teacher to fetch a pushchair. When it had been wheeled in, she then genially asked the boys if they would like to sit in it, as they were behaving like babies; they solemnly shook their heads.
When being shown some slides, I was far more interested in the projector behind me than the content on the screen, and the teacher sarcastically made me operate the projector. I think it was intended as a humiliation, but I loved it!
My teacher rarely shouted, but when she told children off, she sometimes yanked them by the wrist. When she once did this to me, I said confidently "stop pulling my nice jumper". Fortunately, she liked me enough not to get too angry, but I don't think I would have got away with that with another teacher. I respected her, because she didn't often make children miss their play. She once said to the class "if we're not tidied up in time, you'll miss your play, and I'll miss my cup of coffee". I thought that made her more human than the others.
One of the worst sins children could commit was doing something without being told, even if it was obvious we would be told to do it in a moment. "I didn't say 'pack away', did I?" With a teacher who was not our usual one, she wrote "kitten" on the board, and so did more than half the class, in their books. She then did a Trunchbullesque march, throwing children's books on the floor, then told them to stand at the front and hold them up. After they had sat down, she said kindly "now write the word 'kitten'". Our usual teacher was a bit shocked when she heard about this.
Some children were warned not to mess about with sticks in the playground, because someone's eye might get hurt. When they persisted, they had to spend five minutes of their next play blindfolded (sitting down and supervised), so that they would learn what it was like to lose their sight, like Louis Braille did, as we had learned about him.
One boy came out of the toilet, pointing at another, saying "he weed on me". Two teachers discussed what to do about it: they decided to make the offender write about it, and not be allowed to go to the toilet again that day, saying "if he wets himself, too bad". I imagined this boy settling down to write "I weed on John". This discussion was had in front of several of us.