I Believe In Corporal Punishment

At my first school, aged 8, I and the girl who sat next to me were caught playing a stupid game during a lesson. We didn't receive a specific punishment, but were given a severe dressing down by the headmistress and were humiliated by our class teacher for about the next fortnight. Much better, I think, if we had been given three or four hard smacks with a slipper and that had been the end of it.

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Sharon · F

What was the game?

MartinII · 70-79, M

Very embarrassing, I'm afraid. One of us tried to touch the other's thumb with his/her tongue, while the other tried to prevent it. Afterwards we were labelled "the thumb-suckers".

Sharon · F

@MartinII: Is that all? It hardly deserved a slippering.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Sharon: Well thank you. But for an annoyingly well-behaved little brat like me it seemed rather serious, and the headmistress took a very dim view of it. My point is that a slippering would actually have been a lesser, but more effective, punishment than a fortnight's continual humiliation, which is what actually happened.

Sharon · F

@MartinII: I agree a slippering would have been better, that's what I got for misbehaving in class at that age. I don't think I'd have been slippered for what you did though. Probably just a quick dressing down, if that.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Sharon: Of course, as well as the game, we hadn't been paying attention for ages.

Sharon · F

@MartinII: That would have earned me a slippering, in fact it did a few times.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Sharon: Another curious feature of this story is that the teacher didn't see what we were up to. A girl sitting behind us told on us. She should have been thrashed for snitching, in my opinion!