Things that would pan out differently today...

I was never physically struck.....

But when my older sister was in high school there was a teacher that loved to catch girls out in the hall during classes, sneak up on them and grab and shake the living daylights out of them. My sister was one of her victims. One time this old bat shook a young looking girl that was actually a new or student teacher or some such. She didn't shake any more but now she would probably be fired. I guess it was ok to shake kids teeth out back then but not an adult.
 
The old battle axes......

Beemerguy53 said:
(Now, for some additional information...Sister Annina was, at that time, in her early fifties. She was very petite. There were about 45 of us in her class. I think of the challenge she faced as a middle-aged woman trying to control almost four dozen 8th Graders...and I can't really fault the Attila the Hun approach. Yeah, we hated her at the time, and we were terrified of her...but we learned. Half-a-century later, I remember what she taught us...and on the Facebook page for St. Mary's, there are many tributes to her from her former students.

Buzzy, by the way, became a civil engineer... :) )
Click to expand...

Nobody likes an old bat. But as I watched the educational system crumble around me back in the early 70s I was really happy that I'd been taught by real teachers instead of drunks, dope addicts, thieves and 'teachers' with no credentials who were referred to as 'Doctor so and so". Oh, and some 'teachers' who still wanted to be students. By the time my brother got there it was worse.
 
Kinda long!

Based on what I read here most of you will not believe the school I graduated from in Albany NY. Its name was Philip Schuyler and the principal was MR. Ben M Becker. He was the Olympic boxing coach of Cassius Clay (his name then) Sugar Ray and a couple other people.

Mr. Becker was a "hands on" type of principal. He was not prejudiced in any way and had the support of the community where the school was located (deep in the Ghetto) He ran a super tough school. There were things you just did not do or you might end up in his office. Leaving the office with black eyes, loose teeth and a hurting torso were common if the offense you committed merited it. God help you if you raised your hands to him.

He was also very fair and helped out all in need. This was a poor school and he organized clothes/ gowns for the girl's suits for the boys. Shoes/boots were also given away! He would get you out of jail but then you got some hands on from MR. Becker. You did well in school working to your ability whatever that was fine; you wanted a day off to go hunting/fishing no problem!

He also did not believe in out of school suspensions. You were detailed to the boiler room and basically were a slave to the maintaince staff. Painting, snow shoveling, cutting grass, window cleaning ETC. + you had to do all assigned homework from your teacher.

One of the biggest No's was fighting, you got caught fighting on school grounds your next fight was with MR Becker (see second paragraph above) With that said you and the other student could go to see MR Becker and make your case and if you just had to go hands on. MR Becker would take you down to the gym alcove where a regulation boxing ring was set up. Big gloves were put on and you could go up to 3 rounds under strict boxing rules to iron out differences. FWIW I fought in two of those and won both.

I could say a lot more about MR. Becker but I trust most do not believe it anyway. But it is true. Of course that was the 60s and no way would this fly today. For you doubters hunt around on line and look up MR Ben Becker. There is also a Becker Foundation started by his son.
 
When I was in high school we had an uppity old Home Ec. teacher. One afternoon the girls had their mothers in for a tea to show off all the manners they had learned.

Somebody who will remain nameless put an almost empty 5th of Whiskey on the teacher's desk seconds before the crowd arrived in the Home Ec. room.

The teacher went ballistic.
The Principal rounded the usual suspect and brought him to his office. He asked the "suspected villain" if he did it and was told "yeah". The villain was an ornery twerp, but he weren't a liar. The "villain" thoroughly expected to be kicked out of school, but was told to "consider yourself chewed out, now get out of my office."

I can still hear him laughing as I... I mean as the "villain" went down the stairs and returned to Ag Shop.

That's the same Principal that the Basketball coach called when I brought in a new gun into his office for his approval.. The Principal would have been plumb upset if he hadn't been invited.
 
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I remember the discipline of parochial school even now.Morning, before class, Mass. Afternoon, after the school day, Mass again. The nuns patrolled the aisles of the church, carrying yardsticks, & if you got tired of kneeling & tried to rest your posterior against the bench, a nun in ninja mode would creep on you & whack you across that posterior. This is one of my earliest memories of organized religion. If you were starting to exhibit wayward tendencies, it was time to visit Father Superior. I never saw this particular device used, & it might have been kept as a form of mental torture, but he kept a spanking machine in his office. Imaging a small metal seat, with the center removed. Four very stiff paintbrushes stuck through, mounted to a belt driven axle. This might be a little hard to believe for some , But I attest that its true. One thing I never understood was why I went to parochial school but my sister always went to public schools...not fair at all!
 
Back in my area until around 1973, as a student, you had little rights except to shut up and do what you are told when you were told to do it. Any "slack" on this was up to the individual teachers...that was often very little.

In 1st grade, we stood at the lunch table with our trays until the teacher...always last and at the head of the table...arrived. She/He'd look around. When they sat, you sat and you ate...quite often "duck" (eat it now, taste it later). When the teacher was finished and rose from the table, they were finished and so were you. In addition, the teachers wrote down names while sitting at the table. You kept your eyes to the front and ate. You did not speak unless spoken to. If it was even thought you spoke, the teacher would write down the name. When you got back to class, it was like waiting for an execution. The teacher would call out (while our heads were on the desk for rest period) "If I call your name, stand at the door." Names would be called and groups of students, sometimes ten or more, would be marched to the principal's office and get "the board of education." Whether you did anything or not was irrelevant. The only thing that saved me once was that I was in eye sight of one of the teachers who vouched for me.

In 2nd grade, the teacher stepped out for a meeting. Another teacher babysat ours and her class. SOME (not all) of the kids got the idea of standing on their chairs and were caught by this teacher. By the time it was all said and done, more than 70% of my class was marched to the principal's office and got swats....many of the students didn't even do anything. If you spoke out, you'd get hauled down to the office, too. Again, I got lucky and was in a back corner (no, I didn't do anything). Parents went up there the next day to complain and were promptly ejected by the principal who made it clear that the students were in their custody for the time they were at school and the parents had nothing to say about it. Basically, we can do what we want. If the parents had taken it further, retailation against the student (like grades dropping) would've been the result.

The next year, all of that had changed like flipping a switch and while not a free-fest like schools today, they weren't quite as draconian, either.

Sorry for the long story, but it shows how things have changed. While I think little of schools today, I'm glad the things that I saw aren't allowed to happen anymore. A lot of kids my age went to school in terror because of these kinds of practices.
 
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Was a model student until I was 10. Don't remember getting slapped, but I was best friends with the Principals and office staff. Whenever fifth grade left the class as a group, Mr Starkey used to carry me by the base of the skull with my toes just touching the ground. I loved that guy, even beat him at chess after he taught me the game one day after school. He was my favorite teacher, although I don't remember learning anything from him but discipline.
 
In grade school I played football. In west Texas, school football was a big thing. Our coach was Mr. McCain and he looked like Sgt. Carter on steroids.

On afternoon in eighth grade a linemen, Ritchie, and coach McCain got into an argument in the locker room after practice. When coach turned his back and walked off, Ritchie gave him the one finger salute. Ritchie forgot that there was a full-length mirror at the end of the room and coach McCain saw the gesture clearly.

That's when the coach turned on the lineman, grabbed the boy's finger and pulled him over to the toilet and put his hand into the water. Next he took that finger and put it into Ritchie's mouth. Then without saying a word, coach McCain walked out of the locker room.
 
Parkway Jr. High's Coach Moller and his 100 yd. obstacle
course of power line poles, 2x8's and 2" tubular steel.

I was there '71 to '74. Shortly after I left it was
torn down and A/C installed in the school.
 
NYlakesider said:
I could say a lot more about MR. Becker but I trust most do not believe it anyway.
Click to expand...
Nahh, you always seemed to be a stand-up guy, and many of us remember the days before legal liability became an all-encompassing fear, and such actions were possible.
Found a nice tribute to MR. Becker from his Alma mater, SUNY Cortland.
SUNY Cortland Athletics - Hall of Fame
 
Ah Catholic school and the all knowing Nuns. When I was in 4th grade I needed to use the restroom. When I asked Sister Devota Marie she told me I could wait for lunch time. No I couldn't so I ended up with a puddle at my feet. The school called my dad to bring a change of clothes. When he arrived I knew the look on his face,he asked why I didn't ask to go? I told him I did and Sister told me I could wait until lunch. He turned to face Mother Superior and asked if that was true when she nodded yes, his fist hit the desk so hard the statue of Mary jumped at least 6" off of it. When he left I had the first desk inside the door and never had to ask again through 8th grade.
 
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9th grade junior high, public school, generally good teachers, some excellent. 1967 or 1968. Paddling students was over by that time in the area I lived. The teacher of one of my classes was in her forties, probably, not tall and of slender build. Good teacher.

One of my classmates was a large-framed girl who was crude and a bit of a bully. Very disruptive in class. One day, the teacher asked her to please be quiet. The girl called her a two part obscenity describing how female dogs got pregnant. All background noise ceased, it was pin-drop time.

The teacher walked over to the girl's desk, glaring at her. The girl stood up and faced her, being almost half a head taller and outweighing the teacher by probably 50 pounds.

Teacher asked her, "What did you call me?" The girl said, "I called you a ******* *****." The teacher gave the girl an open hand slap across the face.

The girl slapped her back, quite a bit harder.

The teacher wound up, really quickly, and slapped her back as hard as I've ever seen anyone get slapped. The girl fell on the floor and then rubbed her face.

The teacher stood over her and said, calmly, "Sit down at your desk and be quiet." The girl did. When the bell rang a few minutes later, both of their faces were quite red on the sides that got slapped.

As we got out into the hall, the bully girl said loudly, "Did you see that?" to all of us. Most of us just smiled and shook our heads. One of the other girls said, "I saw it, and you got just what you deserved."

If the event was ever complained about to higher ups, I never heard of it. The bully girl kept her mouth tightly closed in that class the rest of the year but didn't change her behavior in her other classes. The teacher, other than wearing a lot of makeup on her face for a week or two, went on teaching us like nothing had happened.
 
...my junior high school metal shop teacher was Sam Dreith...brother of NFL referee Ben Dreith...

...a friend and I were screwing around disrupting the shop class...and Mister Dreith made us go outside with the girl's gym class and hold hands and skip around in a circle for the rest of the period...
...boys now days would have been psychologically scarred for life...we thought it was kind of funny...the only ones upset were the girls being seen by us in their gym suits...

...I also remember our gym teacher Mr. Tolland...a very large man...taking one of his size 16 or so high top Converse shoes off and trying to beat a kid half to death with it...the kid was a born trouble maker...strong as hell (he could assume a sitting position under a gym rope...and pull himself all the way to the rafters in the sitting position...fast...very fast)...the beating didn't have any effect on him...I doubt he even told his parents...
 
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bigwheelzip said:
Nahh, you always seemed to be a stand-up guy, and many of us remember the days before legal liability became an all-encompassing fear, and such actions were possible.
Found a nice tribute to MR. Becker from his Alma mater, SUNY Cortland.
SUNY Cortland Athletics - Hall of Fame
Click to expand...


Thank you!
He was loved by both the minority community and basically most of the city. The school administrators if not out right loving what he did at least did not stop him. He ran HIS school HIS way. He also had a very good relationship with the cops as I alluded to in my first post on getting kids out of jail.

RIP MR. Becker!
 
italiansport said:
I received all of the above but in addition Ms: O'Hearn, the elem. school principal, used to lock me in a dark closet for hours.
My mother ended up in a nursing home when she was in her 90s. I went to see her one day and she told me Ms. O'Hearn was in the next room. I walked over out of curiosity knowing she had to be over 100! She took one look at me and said "Jimmy - you were a very bad boy in school"!
Jim
Click to expand...

Heh heh, I have another I just remembered. One of my teachers bought a new refridgerator and kept its box. I dont remember her name? but she made a "door" in the back of the box, and put a desk in it, front cut down so the seated "victim" could see the chalkboard. I got "sentenced" to it once for a week. This thing was put in front of the classroom, so everyone saw the punishee-who'd be totally humiliated. It backfired on the teach with me-cause I enjoyed the heck out of it and could easily get away with not paying attention-and doodling. This was in the 2nd grade at Epiphany Episcopal Day School. I no longer retain what I did to get that weeks sentencing? but ill betcha it was a doosey.:D
 
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