School punishments continue apace from last week. It turns out there are many years of repressed anger awaiting to be released.
Starting with Paul Fergus of Croydon, who wonders whether Graham Mostyn of Castle Hill (C8 Wednesday) attended the same country school as he did at Galong. “As a seven-year-old, I asked to learn the piano. I was told to go to the music room to speak with the music teacher, whose reputation for rapping knuckles with the edge of a ruler was legendary. I was told: ‘Sing the scales’. That was the end of my music lessons and my knuckles remained intact.”
Possibly the same school, although, given the many reports of ruler-wielding sisters, not an isolated instance. Another story comes from Julie Campbell of Redfern: “Sounds like the Sisters of Mercy in country towns had no mercy as I was taught piano at the convent in Forbes and the nun there rapped me over the knuckles with a ruler too if I made a mistake. It turns out I was much better at music theory with no fear of the ruler in that class. If I’d practised more I might have liked it more, but found practising scales boring. I preferred to read a book.”
Of course, some memories sting for other reasons as well. Stewart Martin of Mangerton remembers, “At my secondary school in the 1960s, a group of smokers was caught near the perimeter fence. I went over to see what was happening and got rounded up with the offenders [Yes, of course we believe you, Stewart] and given six of the best. Aggrieved, I told my mother. She gave me a thrashing for becoming involved. Sometimes, you just can’t win.”
Then a still suffering Michael Payne of West Pymble says, “When I was eight years old, the teacher caned me 10 times, five on each hand, for 10 spelling mistakes. It didn’t work as I still cannot spell well.”
To end with a nice memory, Toni Lorentzen of Fennell Bay reports, “In the 1950s, Bondi Public School had a policy of caning for wrongdoing, and most of the teachers used wooden rulers. However, our gentle 6th form teacher, Miss Edith Wordsworth, got around this by hitting us with a coat hanger which was covered in foam and voluminous amounts of satin. It was like being hit with feathers.” Good on you, Miss Wordsworth.
Column8@smh.com.au
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