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Insert John Cleese accent here.....

"Discipline is the means whereby you are trained in orderliness, good conduct, and the habit of getting the best of out of yourself."

This is the opening line of the "discipline card" which was given to students to write out when there was a infraction, or rule broken at a school when I was a kid growing up in England. One had to write it out exactly, with absolutely no mistakes, or it was........."WRONG do it again......WRONG  do it again". I wrote a few in my time I can tell you! I remember one time it took six trys to get it right! The Pink Floyd used loads of English school setiments and quotes like this one. The, "How can you have any pudding if yer don't eat yer meat" is a classic, and when belted out like an old English school teacher wearing the black gown......(picture John Cleese from Monty Python doing this) then you have the right sentiment to say it and feel it. It struck fear in the hearts of many a young student.

It was brutal in those days, and corporal punishment was common place.... or at least the fear of it was. Most students like me lived in perpetual fear of some form of discipline being handed down on us by some mean spirited old codger who it seemed, really did want to ....oh hear is what I really mean!

When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children in any way they could
"OOF!" [someone being hit....most likely me!!]
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids

Why does this feel true for a lot of us....because it was bloody true that's why!  Some teachers were great....but some were mean old bastards!

Thus ends my comment.

I'm sure most of you have your own to add....please do! It will be good therapy!! LOL

Bob

In a funny mood today are we Bob?
   As Ive said before, on the blue pages,when I was at school in the 60's and early 70's all I really learnt were survival skills....what was needed to survive the day.With other kids behaving like wild animals and the teachers even worse.It was imperative to use ones wit and guile
  Having had the cane administered by a thug of a headmaster for something I hadn't done,with no right of appeal
              (you are guilty because I say you are) made me realise people who exercise authority without first gaining your respect deserve to be ridiculed then ignored.
       That lesson at least has served me well through out my life. Woe betide any official or public servant that tries to talk down to me.

Great comment BD. My sentiments exactly. Survival skills were learned, so I guess some good did come of all that bloody social torture! Thank god I had the sports fields, I really shone there! I take comfort in knowing that when those miserable teachers went home that "their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within an inch of their lives!" Justice was being served no doubt!!!

The fodder for endless Monty Python comedy.

Remember the sketch when the headmaster brings in the students parents to tell them that there had been a fatal beating administered to the child, as a result of an overdue library book! Hilarious!

I'm a teacher ...

Well, I'm actually a lecturer at the local FE college and love my job but there are two things that really irritate me about it:

1.  The heavy burden of completing paperwork, which stifles a teacher's creativity in planning interesting lessons.

2.  After finding the time to prepare an interesting lesson, which can take anything from 2 to 6 hours, the kids sit there disinterested or surfing the Web (that reminds me to get their user accounts filtered).  >

I was teaching communication skills the other day and how to make effective telephone calls and deal with Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss Angry - see how bloody politically correct we have to be - no wonder we go home and thrash our fat and psychopatic partners ;D).  Anyway, I gave them my best lesson and even put the steel Division Bell heads on the title slide of my presentation and still they sat there disinterested.  I got my own back in the end though and made them do role plays - they had to spend 30 minutes writing scripts for them  ;D

Today, I was teaching them about netiquette and how to reply to emails - one girl got it right, but the rest of them failed miserably.  They used no punctuation or capital letters at the start of sentences and in some cases resorted to texting language.  I'm supposed to make them employable by the end of May 

Makes me wonder what teachers do in schools.  Teachers actually get paid more than lecturers, which is ironic considering we have to teach their failures.

Well that's my rant over ... anyone want a beating?  ;D

Although it is incumbent on the one in authority to use it wisely we should always give respect to that authority in the first place. If we do not we will end up in a worse position than we are today. It is a basic lack of respect for each other that is at the root of a lot of the problems we face as a society. I was taught by my parents to respect authority and I think, even though there may be a very few who will abuse their position of authority, children should still be taught to respect authority. They will learn as they grow that the few who abuse their position are far outweighed by the good ones who have all our interests at heart. Without discipline and authority we have anarchy.
Of course that is only in my humble opinion

Wow...this has suddenly tuned into a very interesting and dare I say, "intellectual" and though provoking thread! Great!!

I too was a teacher for quite a few years, and my daughter is also a teacher (music), and we often have great discussions about these matters. Phil you are right, and despite having some major memories of misery at school. The good teachers far outweigh the bad. I think the problem was more of a systemic one back then, and in some cases this brought out the worst in some teachers. Hopefully the system has improved at least a bit since then! At least the fatal beatings have stopped!

But lack or respect is a huge problem. I also find a lack of social graces too. Does anyone but me open the door for anyone anymore! Maybe I'm just an antique! But I find that sort of thing, manners and other social graces, go a long way to helping us all get along together. IMHO

Bob