I would never even dream of telling my parents I had been hit by a teacher for some misdemeanor, as I would know my father would administer some more physical punishment for "showing his parenting up" as he liked to say. Hell, he punched me so hard on the chin once for telling him to **** off in the front garden during a very heated argument I was literally out cold for a short time. I made sure to bite my foul tongue whatever the provocation after that incident...
Those teachers who sometimes deferred from physical punishments often had tongues like vipers and could make you look and feel utterly cretinous in front of your peers.
There was ABSOLUTELY nothing PC about what they said either. One lad had a father who was a solicitor and his old man had made the papers over some scam. This lad was accused of plagiarising some work for his English essay, and got told that he should try and leave his criminal genes back home when he leaves for school each morning.
I was once told to see if a new boy "of colour" knew how to use a formal cutlery layout. He was some ambassador's son and rubbed shoulders with some of our minor Royals. He knew more about formal dinners than anyone I was likely to ever meet
My form master asked us all in our first week what cars our fathers drove, and one said a Ford Prefect. This teacher told him that his father was probably either very unfortunate or a wastrel at school, and that "This eminent establishment, appreciated and used fully, could put a Bentley on the drive of your detached house, given due diligence and application".
He also wrote on someone's school report that their son's destination more likely lay in Strangeways prison than university.
Any of the above would be appalling to today's school governors but gave a certain resilience and backbone to us, and probably few of us would be engaging the help of the forum moderators after feeling hurt in an argument after such experiences
In hindsight it was a great era and a good grounding.
