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The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:00 pm
by SARID
I read an article last week about the use of the tawse in Scottish schools before the ban was imposed in the nineteen eighties.
I remember in Carradale school ,in our final primary classes we had a spelling test every Friday. Fall below the margin of error allowed and the punishment was "wan o'the belt "
Maybe that's why you are a good speller now " was my Grand-daughter's response, when I told her the tale.
On to the "Grammar "
A pal of mine fell off a high stool in the Art Dept, and "Wee Dolly " was waiting to belt her when the poor lassie got up from the floor !
This was in late 1940/ early 1950

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:51 pm
by Martin
The school I was at before Dalintober had a slipper, I'd never heard of "the strap" or "the belt", so it was something of a shock to my system ! I seem to remember Mr. McNeil putting his all into it.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:59 pm
by MPR
the very worst part of the tawse was the anticipation......

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:50 pm
by Martin
MPR, do you mean waiting outside "the office" and blowing on your hands before even getting in there ? The bigger kids pushing the smaller ones to the front ?

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:50 pm
by four eyes
happy days eh, a good thrashing was meted out in my day. Perhaps we should start a poll as to who was the top boy when it came to it.Tom nose and Ferguson were just two of the teachers who laid into me, come on everyone let's hear about your favourites. :lol:

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:43 pm
by bill
One cold winter morning and our first period was metalwork.I was hardly in the class when the teacher(can't remember his name)decided I was mucking about,and decided it was the belt for me.After my punishment I promptly fainted.Came to out in the corridor being administered smelling salts. :lol:

Another time we were in Mr Brown's Geography class when the door opened and a tall lad entered.Straight off I shouted"it Jammy's wee brother"(Jammy being the smallest lad in our year).Unfortunately for me the headmaster was right behind the tall lad."That boy,my office now."It was a long wait standing outside with other pupils passing by. :lol:

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:23 am
by LANDROVER ROGER
Are any of you mentally scarred by the experience?I think not.At my school we had several "punishment"methods.No tawse.Plimsoll,bunsen tubing,cane or doubled up seat base webbing.We also had a teacher that would prowl the corridors at break time with his right fist out-stretched.If you did not walk in line in the corridor you would receive a smack in the mouth.I am not,for one minute,suggesting that all this was necessary.I was eventually expelled from this school for continual unruly behaviour.Discipline and respect,therefore,was not instilled in to me at school,but by both of my parents.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:56 am
by Iain
When I started school, (five years after the war) I don’t remember being punished in Campbeltown. On the other hand, when we moved on to Bothwell/Uddingston, (not far from Glasgow) that was another story. :lol:

One teacher nicknamed Basher, (for all the right reasons) used a “Lochgelly.” Now this animal when folded in two, always stood rigidly upright on his desk, just like a compass. He was obviously a sadistic b*****d, (and I say sadistic in the true sense of the word) and was probably one of the aspects that led the belt to be eventually banned.
He looked like a fanatic from some para regiment, so you can imagine the muscles on that right arm. And he’d not only give five of the best which would swell the hands and even the wrists, with the two-tongue line down the middle stinging like hell, but in addition, he’d even wait with the belt nearly touching the ground until the hands were once again extended..., simply to strike the back of the hands on the upward stroke.

At the age of 14 when we moved down to Petersfield in England, and as Billy Bunter could have told you at the time..., that cane really nipped the behind ! But at least there..., you were able to continue writing for the remainder of the day.

A purely personal point of view: In me..., it did teach discipline ! A characteristic obviously absent when you hear the childrens’ comments following the London riots.
Bring back the Boot-Camps !!!

http://www.s1lochgelly.com/memories/a-h ... tawse.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfuVQJdA ... re=related

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:42 am
by four eyes
just remembered,i think one of the teachers had a belt that was missing one of the tassles and he used to hold it by the remaining tassle and thrash you with the handle so to speak. Yep that wait outside the Rectors with everyone passing on the stairs was a bummer indeed. I think it only really hurt if you were a puny type as some of them big farmers lads etc just let it bounce of them,much to the chagrin of the teachers :lol:
Mr brown was an English teacher surely, John the boot was Geography was he not

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:33 pm
by SARID
I don't think many would dare go home and complain we had been belted. Certainly not me !

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 3:22 pm
by glassblower
We never had the Twase in Yorkshire the "cane and the plimsoll" being the favorite, i had the cane nearly every week but only had the plimsoll once, that was truely painfull, didn't want that again. One of our teachers (most of them were x-force's) took great delight in just missing your fingers on the downward stroke of the cane (you though "yippee he's missed") and then catching you on the knuckles on the upward stroke, that i can tell you was a lot more painfull than on the fingers. Yes dicipline was hard but in the main it was fare, have all those canings done me any harm, i dont think so, did it teach me respect well a few years ago i went to a school reunion and some of the old teachers were there and every one of us still called then Mr/Mrs. How many of your friends and neighbours childern still call you Mr/Mrs, not many i bet.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:47 pm
by Martin
I remember that the seventies games masters were the worse. I can still shudder at the thought of naked press-ups and having to hold the position above a strategically placed and cocked (pardon the pun) mousetrap. Those blokes must have had a stack of gay S&M porn and used it as a handbook.
School never taught me discipline or respect, it did teach me to rebel and never to trust anyone in authority. It also taught me to hate and despise teachers, something I still do to this day with only a very few exceptions.
I don't suppose anyone has a pic of dear old Mrs. Smith or Mr. McNeil ? I can remember what Mrs Smith looked like but struggle with Mr. McNeil, just a memory of a bald head with a bit of hair at the sides.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:07 pm
by gizmo
Martin wrote:I remember that the seventies games masters were the worse. I can still shudder at the thought of naked press-ups and having to hold the position above a strategically placed and cocked (pardon the pun) mousetrap.


What the hell kind of school did you go to? :@
To think I thought Mr Burgoines bunny hops were bad.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:26 pm
by Martin
Gizmo, there were a few schools, some were bad, some weren't so bad, that's how I rate them.

Re: The Tawse

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:55 pm
by bill
Martin, if you mean Mr.Hector McNeil the Dalinober Headmaster then go to the link below.There you will find him,top left of the photograph.




viewtopic.php?f=22&t=12299


Four eyes,of course you are correct,Mr.McKerral was geography.