Did you grow up in a world of corporal punishment?

@ArtieKat Same here. I got it a few times.

@Lynda70 I led a charmed life lol! Never got caught for anything serious - just the slipper a few time in PE and rulered hands in primary school!

It was pretty much routine even for the moderately well behaved. We watched like judges at a skating contest - follow through and artistic impression …
@Lynda70

@Colin713 Slipperings in class were everyday events. Canings in the office were common too.

I saw my first tawsing when about eight and was a consumer maybe at nine or ten. Gym teachers were especially enthusiastic and sometimes gave on the bottom as opposed to the classical target of crossed hands. The prefects had a slipper which was rumoured to be size fourteen and was very very sore. Gym shoes were a device for delivering discomfort in horseplay ! @Lynda70

@Colin713 We didn't get the tawse here in England. The plimsoll was usual in junior and secondary school, and frequently used. It was next to impossible to get through a week without getting the slipper at least once.

@Lynda70 i think that in the north of England they used tawses but not always on the hands. I had a friend who calculated that he had received 17 strokes in the previous week but i never got close to that record. Did you get slippered by females only? Or did gentlemen share the thrill?

@Colin713 I've heard the tawse was used in the North of England. Boys and girls were slippered and caned by teachers of both sexes. In general, women teachers slippered a lot harder than the men did.

Women teachers were generally thought to be milder than the men. Once a weak teacher who never used the strap was goaded to lose her temper and went storming off to the staff room we thought to borrow a strap. But she returned with the sports master who did the job on her behalf. Not fun!
@Lynda70

@Colin713 [quote]Women teachers were generally thought to be milder than the men.[/quote]
IME it was the other way around. Female teachers really gave it their all, possibly so as not to be thought of as weak.

In junior school they were not very frequent users of the tawse. It became very frequent in senior school especially from eleven to fourteen and nearly all the teachers were men. They carried their bit of leather either in the sleeve of the gown or over the shoulder. Ladies used their handbag but there were not many female teachers in senior school@Lynda70