Did you get the belt at School?

[mrdude]

I went to school during the 70's/80's and from the age of about 9-16 I regularly used to get the belt - on average about once or twice a week.

For those that don't know what it is:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/annexxxcdscotland/8269988841

The first time I got it was at about 9, for spitting in the playground. I once got 6 (3 times on each hand), for calling a girl a 'dog' - which means ugly in Scotland. Sometimes everyone in the class got belted if someone did something and the teacher never knew who it was.

To be honest, you kind of got used to it after a while, I used to hear that in England, people got the Cane instead of the belt. I've never been caned so I don't know how they compared pain wise, I assume it would be more painful - however you did get different kinds of belts, some were quite thick and heavy leather with the end split into 2 parts - others were thinner and had about 6 splits in the end, the pain was different for each one.

If you got belted from the side - the belt use to wrap around your hand and get the other side as well, if you got belted head on - you sometimes used to get the wrist as well as the hand - that was quite painful.

Anyway as kids are cheeky nowadays - do you think it should be re-introduced? or some other form of physical punishment should be dished out? Kids seem to be wrapped in cotton wool nowadays and mollycoddled compared to when I was young ,and my parents had it even worse, my great granddad was a chimney sweep in the victorian days when he was boy, used to go on about - 'kids should be cleaning chimneys', 'you don't know you're born', and stuff like that - what a lot of changes in the last 100 years or so, although I do think that sometimes kids needs some punishment - maybe forcing them up chimneys is a bit too much.

[holmroad]

In the 50's we used to very occasionally get the 'slipper; and sometimes the ruler mate!
Must be why I'm such a level headed well presented guy? lol!!

[mrdude]

In the 50's we used to very occasionally get the 'slipper; and sometimes the ruler mate!
Must be why I'm such a level headed well presented guy? lol!!

The 'slipper' - did you go to a posh school? haha, When my mum used to give me the slipper - I used to pretend it was sore so she would feel better (trying not to laugh when she was giving me it), lol.

[Barney]

For me it was a Golf Club ...yes just imagine a total psycho headmaster running around with a golf club
which i believe was much worse than the belt because it brought you to your knees instantly and it hurt like fcuk for days and days
i still have the scars and trouble walking properly to this day which is over 30 years ago now
i did get the belt and cane also so i know exactly what that feels like too make no mistake
just getting caught with 1 puff of a cigarette earned me 10 of the best or 5 really hard strikes with the golf club whichever the teacher felt was most degrading and painfull at that particular time and would set an extreme example to others , skipping school or 'scheming' was always rewarded with the belt and it was'nt pretty at all !!
so i would never want things to go back to those very depressing old days: )
And sure kids are cheeky nowadays and sure its gone too far the other way but there simply needs to be a happy medium and not the violence which was all too common in my day ..i left school for pure fear i would never walk again at 13 years old not something that any youngster should ever have to sacrifice
found myself on a deck of a boat working my a$$ off @ 13years old but making 7 or 8 hundred every month for zero education but ability to learn very fast something you need to know how to do real well or you do not eat and you try find a job with no qualifications or papers or education equals no hope whatsoever .
spent 8 years on a couple of different fishing boats i got lucky the skipper i worked for was retiring and knew the boss of a local fish factory
i had picked up enuff knife skills while at sea to fillet fish very quickly and got a job on land in that factory and spent the next 10 years
working my a$$ off for that Boss who was the most straight and honest man i will ever meet , and learning how to drive forklifts , learning how to drive a lorry having loads of fun along the way making a decent weekly wage .
it was a very sad and depressing time when he passed away i pretty much gave up working after that for others i tried it but today's greedy and ruthless Bosses are too much for me but i'll survive i always have found a way even without any education or paperwork : ))
thats the story of my life right there i have nothing to hide , i have lived life to the max got drunk many times , did drugs had fun with hookers , wrecked several cars broke many bones , fell from the top of a a three story house , went overboard while painting a boat at the pier which is not something to brag about but you name it i done it and its a miracle i'm here and able to talk about it .

Today's kids i just do'nt see being as lucky in life as i have been which is why education is vital but excessive violence needs to stay in the past ,
@ mrdude i thank you for opening this topic to discuss this issues and sorry if i have went into far too much detail
but i can relate to everything you have written about and my father even got much worse horrific beatings than i ever did
which is why the past needs to remain behind us and its horrific brutality and the ignorant people behind those attacks who are pretty much all now dead or were already dead inside .
Some type of working punishment would be more fitting these days like recycling or cleaning nothing very sinister but enuff to make them not require a second helping of that punishment .

Today i saw two very young kids trying to play some music with a couple of small drums they found
they were just messing around having harmless fun outside a supermarket
they were not expecting it at all but i gave them a fiver each you'd swear they won the lotto they could hardly even contain their excitement....i so remember well when i was young like that but was never lucky enuff to be given anything in life ..... not all kids are bad !!!
cheers !

[TonyO]

In junior school I used to get lines all the time because I didn't know when to shut up talking, in secondary school I used to get the cane on the hand for the same reason all the time, I didn't hold a grudge against the teacher who I got on quite well with, eventually I kept quiet because getting the cane all the time was boring and it hurt a bit.

I was top of my class for several subjects but I was crap at english and history, so I only ever came 3rd or 4th, I was top in my school year for maths and all the science subjects, I learned to behave late on only because it was easier to get on then get into scrapes all the time.

I did photography at college and a few years later radio electronics as well, it kept me in film and tv jobs until I retired.

[mrdude]

I watched this video, it was pretty typical of the average school in Scotland when I was at school - the teachers had the same attitude as well, I hardly remember a day where someone 'never' got belted. We had one teacher who used to walk around with his belt sitting on his shoulder - as he used it that much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skR3Cr5VdiI

On another note - notice how there's no fat kids in that video? Where I lived it was near a miners village and they were on strike (During the Thatcher era) - nearly everyone relied on School Dinners, that was the best thing about school for me, if it wasn't for those I'd probably have starved to death.... :-) as would 90% of the kids I went to school with. I remember my little brother coming home from School one day saying that the belt was getting banned - kids ended up getting lines instead. I've no idea what happened if they didn't do them. I wouldn't imagine the would be expelled, as you got the belt for looking at the teacher the wrong way and if they were having an 'off day', any excuse and you were hauled to the front of the class and belted.

They also used to have 'blackboards' and chalk - I've had my fair share of blackboard dusters thrown at me - they were quite heavy bits of wood and if you got a clout of the head with that, you knew about it. I've had my head split open a couple of times with those - ah the good old days!

On another note, when I first joined the Army we pretty much got what only can be described as tortured sometimes - put in stress positions for long periods of time and such like. I was attached to the Argyll and Sutherland highlanders for 3 years as my first posting, and ****ed some corporal off as he wanted to give me a room inspection at 3 am when he came in ****ed, I told him 'F' off and quickly got arrested by the camp guard. Spend the rest of the night in the cells and then was forced to run about and lift weights until all the muscles in my shoulders and arms couldn't move anymore - I was in agony for about a week and still had to work, I had to get my mates to fasten the buttons on my shirt and open doors for me as I couldn't lift my arms. Bullying was rife in the 80's and early 90's in the Army - although I'm led to believe it doesn't happen much nowadays.

Probably because I'm used to violence (I've been in 4 wars/warzones), I'm not as sympathetic as I should be and have little patience for cheeky kids - but who wouldn't be who grew up in the 70/80's

[mister-t]

used to get the cane,six of the best was my usual punishment,all deserved i must add,i was a right head the ball,my better half say's i still am
teachers could'nt do anything with me,i think the last straw for the school was when i attacked one of the teachers,got expelled was over the moon untill me dad beat the crap out of me,but amateur boxing turned my life around,i think i aint turned out to bad,still have me moments tho and wont take crap off anybody,some kids will benefit from the cane,slipper,belt.some just like i was when i was younger wont.but i do think kids today are more cheeky and do things that i would never have done in my younger days

[Nikkas]

Slipper, ruler, board rubber & cane for me in the 60's.

Perhaps all contributed in some way to deviant fetishes.

[EXTRAFACTO]

like stated above...i think anyone getting slipper were boarding school material
i got cane on few occasions..usually went up in 2s...2..4 ..6 etc...so both hands got same amount
i had the head pin (attached the black to white bit on headgear)used by nun shoved through arm for talking in class...
never felt it enter...hurt like hell on withdrawel
most other teachers threw board rubbers...for talking...became a very fast dodger
in later years i was introduced..to a sadistic english teacher...he invented his own punishment
he called it the white spot...here is how it went
he would put chalk mark on his desk...you would put your nose on it..you would raise your head to show him chalk on your nose
after putting nose back on chalkmark,you would sudddenly feel horrific pain on head..
this guy had wooden cotton reel on a string attached to his keys...and would use it like playing conkers...you only got one of these
i never heard anyone having to have stitchs etc...but i know he had the best behaved class..in each yr he taught
today that guy would be jailed for a long time
infact proberly all would...todays kids do not realise how lucky they are
teachers today are having to be to soft with kids..rightly so..but this opens the door for any kids who are troublesum to do what they want
but i still liked school...and to best of my knowlage suffered no brain damage..through the head bashing from english teacher..

[dostoy]

I will always remember when I started secondary school, we were in a science lesson and two boys did something wrong and the male teacher, Mr Garrod who must have been coming up to retirement told the first boy to bend over and took a run up and smacked his arse with a slipper and then did it again, and then twice more for the other boy.

You could hear a pin drop at the time and the sound it made meant it must have hurt a lot.

I was only about 11 at the time and it was terrifying.

[EXTRAFACTO]

like stated above...i think anyone getting slipper were boarding school material
i got cane on few occasions..usually went up in 2s...2..4 ..6 etc...so both hands got same amount
i had the head pin (attached the black to white bit on headgear)used by nun shoved through arm for talking in class...
never felt it enter...hurt like hell on withdrawel
most other teachers threw board rubbers...for talking...became a very fast dodger
in later years i was introduced..to a sadistic english teacher...he invented his own punishment
he called it the white spot...here is how it went
he would put chalk mark on his desk...you would put your nose on it..you would raise your head to show him chalk on your nose
after putting nose back on chalkmark,you would sudddenly feel horrific pain on head..
this guy had wooden cotton reel on a string attached to his keys...and would use it like playing conkers...you only got one of these
i never heard anyone having to have stitchs etc...but i know he had the best behaved class..in each yr he taught
today that guy would be jailed for a long time
infact proberly all would...todays kids do not realise how lucky they are
teachers today are having to be to soft with kids..rightly so..but this opens the door for any kids who are troublesum to do what they want
but i still liked school...and to best of my knowlage suffered no brain damage..through the head bashing from english teacher..

[oscar]

Started primary school in 1955 and was never caned -- not a goody 2 shoes but didn't want parents to find out I'd misbehaved -- different these days -- the parents would visit the school to have a go at the teacher !
We had an Italian kid start at the same time and he was caned for the slightest reason by the old head master --- something to do with revenge for the war .
In secondary school our maths teacher wore glasses and could see what was going on in the class when writing on the black board by the reflection in the lenses -- the board duster would then wing it's way across the room.
Our English teacher carried a dap ( plimsole ,trainer) inside his jacket pocket which would rain down on your head.
The games master would get you to bend over and he would kick a rugby ball up your backside -- I met him a few years ago and said "remember me you bas***d?" He did and slinked off on his zimmer frame.
The last head master I recall at that school didn't agree with caning and discipline went down hill rapidly -- I left in 1967.
My brother was a teacher in the late 80s early 90s but was glad to get away from it due to the fact some members of staff had no control over the kids and he had to due detention duty which was a complete waste of time .
Like an ASBO it was seen as a badge of honour.
Regards

[ripley]

had the cane,slipper at school in the "70s,when i got home with sore hand had the dreaded belt off my father for getting the cane at school,maybe all of us who had the cane at school should put in a claim for white finger just as miners and various other workers have had

[cosworth4x4]

Think i must have gone to a sado school ,

cane,rubber sole off a dap , strip of wood (woodwork teacher), ruler , chalk board,

plus the cricket bat and a teacher that would grab you by the short hair on you're sideboards or back of you're neck, he would pull you up down then back up so hard and rip the hair out ,

Thinking back its just the way it was , cops were not a lot better few clips off them a punch in the face in the back of a patrol car , and even offered a fight in the middle of the night after being woken up when they supplied me with a bed for the night ,

[jallen01]

"Luckily" I only got the ruler once, at Primary, for supposedly nicking a girl's doll from the cloakroom which I absolutely did not do! So my sympathies go to anyone else who was similarly unjustly punished for something they did not do.

OTOH, there were later a lot of real Sh1ts who virtually tortured me because I was then fat and relatively "clever" (nickname was "Billy Bunter!) - and, AFAIK, they went totally unpunished. All that left me with life-long mental "disabilities" which affected my personal and professional life and career - even now I can't stand anyone who acts like a bully (and I met many of those in later professional life).

So there is another side to the coin!

[Marco]

I remember i had the Slipper years ago i did not like it.
i remember i told my dad he went to that school
he argued with him for ages
That teacher was Nice as pie since.

[sparky_dog]

"Luckily" I only got the ruler once, at Primary, for supposedly nicking a girl's doll from the cloakroom which I absolutely did not do! So my sympathies go to anyone else who was similarly unjustly punished for something they did not do.

OTOH, there were later a lot of real Sh1ts who virtually tortured me because I was then fat and relatively "clever" (nickname was "Billy Bunter!) - and, AFAIK, they went totally unpunished. All that left me with life-long mental "disabilities" which affected my personal and professional life and career - even now I can't stand anyone who acts like a bully (and I met many of those in later professional life).

Being on the receiving end of similar treatment at school, I can totally sympathise.

The last time I was punished properly was at junior school, by the headteacher no less, it was for retaliating against a persistant bully. I always felt hard done to by that, and I will never forget the miserable old **** that walloped me.

[Pog Mo Thoin]

For me it was a Golf Club ...yes just imagine a total psycho headmaster running around with a golf club
....!

lol!!...ONLY in Ireland

[traveller]

My first morning assembly at senior school I was dragged out for talking and then marched to the dep headmasters room and given three strokes on my hand with a very thin cane. Didn't know what I did wrong, only whispered to a friend who also came from the same junior school. That was in 1961.

[holmroad]

I personally still think corporal punishment is fine, but only in moderation, as looking at what's happening with many of the younger generation nowadays, well frankly, I despair!