I Got The Slipper At School

When I was 11 I got the slipper at school from my P.E. teacher for being the last to run round the gym four times.

One of these days I might post the full version of this story but being on a phone this will have to do for now!

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

How's that meant to be a punishment, and for what?

It's obvious to anyone that if you make a bunch of boys run round a gym, any one of them will be last. I think your P.E. teacher simply wanted to give some boy or other the slipper for his own gratification, and his victim happened to be you but could have been anyone else!

Bit like Tuscan's Latin "teacher" using violence to mask his incompetence as a teacher, and his wilful ignorance of the fact that not everyone has the same ability as anyone else to learn any given subject.

My P.E. Teacher in my 1960s, mixed, state grammar-school used the slipper, but only very rarely, and for genuine misdeeds. I suppose it worked because the threat was always there!

chikki · 70-79, M

@ArishMell i fully agree vwith you that such a punishment was not justified, that is of course the poor performance was due to talking. UI di have to agree that some, very few, teachers did get personal satisfaction of whacking some boys bottom, more so if it could be done bare. It was often pe teachers and if they did it for personal gratification should have been locked up. Mind you some teachers did it for minor things knowing the boy was not putting any effort into the task and a cracx with a slipper would "encourage" more effort. These two types of teacher should not be confused

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@chikki
No, I don't confuse the motives, but the teacher would have to have been sure the boy really was being lazy and not in fact able to grasp the subject properly.

And if the latter, can we be sure the teacher himself was really just poor at teaching and/or at making the subject interesting enough for anyone to try to learn?

I remember a letter on a radio programme not very long ago, from a retired Headmaster who admitted that school-children in the past were often misbehaved because, frankly, the lessons were so boring!

(I think they tended to rely on rote-learning more than understanding: make the subject and lesson boring, and no-one can be expected to learn anything.)