Remembering Miss Mary

Anyone watching "Tough Young Teachers" on BBC 3 must ask themselves if things are now so child-centred its getting beyond a joke. I am not at all in favour of reintroducing corporal punishment but I just wish some of the ill mannered louts featured in this series could have sat in the same classrooms I sat in fifty years ago. One withering look and they would melt into a little puddle of greasy hair gel! PS No apologies for sounding like an old fart!

Exactly Arthur, and that's because the withering look was backed up by the threat of a humiliating punishment.
I went to school when CP was widely and frequently used but mainly, only on the real troublemakers.
The majority of us who were, for the most, well behaved, were punished very rarely and were so keen to avoid a repeat that it only took that withering look to nudge us back into line.
I'm not sure if this was fear or respect or perhaps a combination of both. It was however extremely effective.
That makes two old farts!

There was a news report here yesterday which was about the installation of security cameras in schools because teachers are concerned about being physically attacked by both students and some parents. Maybe it's not the kids that need to be disciplined.

We have long had those in school buses, so why not in the classroom? That way, unbelieving parents could be treated to the actual sight of their little darlings misbehaving in class. That should make for some interesting scenes in the principal's office!

I think part of the problem is that many of the offenders have parents whose behaviour is even worse. Teachers and administrators admitted in the report that the real issues come from the parents, not the students.

I remember a posting on the Corpun site that was always one of my favorites to read:

http://www.corpun.com/ussc7709.htm

The article in the NY Post quoted the mother as saying that she gave her daughter three really soft whacks with the belt. The caption on the photos at the bottom, however, has the assistant principal saying that "her mom really sizzled her behind with that strap." Upping the ante to make it more of a "lesson" to students hearing about it or did her mother really blister the girl's bottom? As the Tootsie Pop commercial says, "The world may never know."