Boy, has school changed!

Well, I grew up in Dublin, Ireland and my school years ( 1970 - 1980) were in the hands of the Christian Brothers. Overall, I would say that it was a good experience and they really tried to give you a good educational foundation to tackle the world. However, physical punishment was very much a part of daily school. It was an all boys school and if you misbehaved you were given "lashes" on the hand with either a thick leather strap or a stick about 15" long.

Some of the teachers and brothers just went through the motion of administering the sentence and it did not hurt at all. Then there were the known "hard hitters" and they were experts at the art of lashing the hand. If they were using a stick, usually a 1/2" round, they'd try to hit the tips of the fingers to inflict the most pain. If the strap was being used it was best applied across the palm of the hand, ooouch! If your hands were cold, and winters in Ireland are very cold, you'd really feel it. If you knew the punishment was coming you'd rub your hands together to try and warm them up a bit.

Now, if you pulled your hand as the teacher was trying to lash you and this caused them to miss, your punishment was doubled. However, if you did not mind the extra lashes this little exercise of making the teacher look stupid was always good for a big laugh from the rest of the class!

I will say that I never saw anyone, including myself getting an undeserved lashing - we knew the rules and paid the price for breaking them! Punishment was immediate, over and done with, and you then moved on.

Despite what you might think - school was a great experience for me - every day we laughed and had fun.

Mark O'