“Tim Donovan was right in saying milk monitor (C8) was a prized job,” writes Warwick Teasdale of Pretty Beach. “However, the ultimate prize was to be a ‘Bin Boy’. When lunch finished, ‘Bin Boys’ wandered around, collecting the garbage bins from classrooms and the playground. They could then spend a considerable amount of time emptying the bins into a burning incinerator. An added bonus was pretending to smoke by puffing on burning milk straws.”
Granny is pretty sure that John Frith of Paddington was not alone in his technique in dealing with a classic school punishment (C8), currently under discussion: “Whenever I had to write out 100 lines, I found it easier on the hand to write out the first word 100 times down the page, then the second word 100 times down the page, and so on.”
This would not have worked for Jeffrey Gabriel of Gladesville: “Where’s the creativity in lines? At St Mary’s Cathedral College, our deputy headmaster, Mr Millar, would hand out a ‘ten by ten’ where we had to write ten different sentences with ten words or more on the subject of our particular infringement and why we shouldn’t have done it. Repeat sentences and repeated reasoning were not allowed.”
Maggie Hamilton of North Sydney says, “My dad often told the story of his teacher at Lakemba Boys in the 1940s. Sir had a pile of tennis balls on his desk and if a lad misbehaved, he would grab one and fling it towards the miscreant. Among the tennis balls was nestled one cricket ball. He never checked when he picked a ball, so the boys learnt quickly to behave (or duck).”
“The Herald’s surly photo of Dan and the Dictators last Thursday goes to show that, in China, Mandarin cheese won’t put a smile on your face,” reckons George Manojlovic of Mangerton.
“Quelle surprise! Wendy Crew (C8) sounds well-read enough to know every great dictator has published their tome,” considers Mark Stewart of Elizabeth Bay. “There was: De Bello Gallico (J. Caesar), Dialectical and Historical Materialism (J. Stalin), Mein Kampf (A. Schicklgruber cum Hitler), La mia vita (B. Mussolini), Little Red Book (Z. Mao), With the Century (I. Kim), Ego sum (A. Pinochet), to name a few. It will take more than guts to get through PM #30’s Old King Coal if it comes to fruition. In fact, it might ruin your weekend!”
Column8@smh.com.au
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