Letter: My demon headmaster
Tuesday 14th September 2010, 6:00AM BST.
Letter: The Star makes mention of “sadistic headteachers” of the past.
Certainly in the early 1950s I had the misfortune to encounter headteachers who were definitely sadistic, cruel, perverted and probably psychotic, attacking children for no reason other than they took a dislike to them.
Today these men would serve time for their cruelty, and perverted sexual assaults on children in their care.
So much for the “good old days”.
In the 1950s such behaviour was regarded as “normal” and any child who complained would be severely beaten by teachers and parents.
Name and address supplied
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Your point being…
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obviously just beyond your grasp, Andy…
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In these letters pages on a regular basis one sees frequent requests to return to times when all adults could assault children in the name of discipline and authority. I was schooled during the times of corporal punishment when beatings with sticks or hands would be meted out for even the most trivial misdemeanour. Those who say that they kept out of trouble during those times probably would have done so without the threat of physical pain. Those who were regularly beaten merely proved that such punishment was ineffective.
Sadly, the original letter seems to allude to more than mere beatings. If more serious offences occurred he/she should be seeking advice from the police and may also need assistance to deal with any longer term damage caused. I would like to think that the Shropshire Star, in considering whether to publish this letter, enquired about the author’s welfare before doing so.
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The rhetoric of halcyon days when school teachers acting under loco parentis would beat a child for any reasoned misdemeanour is now unlawful .When this was ammended to he childrens act there was a significant failure not to provide a process for retrospective claim for unreasonable physical and emotional abuse.
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It wasn’t much better in the 70′s, I remember teachers throwing things, hitting the boys with a slipper in front of the class, pulling the girls hair, and making demeaning and humiliating comments. School was hell so far as I am concerned.
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So has this email been over 60 years in the making? If this is such an issue why has this not been mentioned earlier. So is this person saying that they were often in trouble so that punishment was often required? Should the individual in question just of not got on with the school day and kept there nose clean.
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Why the author has submitted this letter now is irrelevant but it appears to be in response to an article in the Shropshire Star. I would not minimise this person’s experience which may be more painful than has been alluded to in this letter. In times gone by one did not need to get into trouble (in ways that would be recognised today) to get punished. Children could and would be physically harmed by teaching staff for such gross misdemeanours as spelling “there” instead of “their”, or for not writing “just have” rather than the meaningless and wholly incorrect “just of”. Now there’s a thought Ian. Six whacks with a cane for that
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