Discipline in Schools

[alice_loves_cats]

Pip wrote:

> It's legal in the UK. There was a re-enactment program on 1950's 
> schools recently (i.e. a bunch of 16 year olds agreed to spend a 
> month at a fictional boarding school run to 1950's rules, 1950's 
> food and 1950's teaching style).
> 
> Because the cane (which was very definitely used in 1950's UK 
> schools) is now illegal, holding weights at chest level was one of 
> the punishments used as an equivalent.
> 
> [They made a point of having one of the teachers say that he'd tried 
> it out himself before making the child do it - and the teacher had 
> lasted two minutes longer than the child did ].
> 
> It was a fascinating programme for the HP fan - because there was 
> the Snape teaching style, in all its glory. Teachers in gowns,  
> silence in class, detentions or other punishments for 'minor' 
> offenses, absolute insistence on 'sir' and 'miss' or the teachers 
> title. Shouting, sarcasm, publicly humiliating students by pointing 
> out their mistakes to the entire class.
> 
> The interesting thing is how quickly the kids adapted to this very 
> harsh style. Out of thirty, only one had so many problems with the 
> discipline that they had to be told to leave the 'school'. 
> 
> Three kids got gigged for breaking the 'six inch rule' (boys and 
> girls may not be closer together than six inches). The punishment 
> was to get up an hour early and go for an invigorating swim in an 
> icy cold pool.
> 
> The director asked one of the kids how he felt about it. The reply 
> was 'It achieved its purpose. I won't be breaking that rule again.'
> 
> Pip!Squeak

Alice comments:

I know this wasn't the point of your mail, but I jumped at the mention
of the programme:

Did you find that sort of Snape-ish discipline at all convincing? I
always had the feeling that the teachers were in fact really nice,
easy-going Arthur Weasley type people pretending to be strict. Sure,
there were punishments, but it was all a game, and, mainly, a TV show
- not convincing, but fun to watch. 

But then I only watched a couple of programmes, as I wasn't in England
long enough to watch them all.

Alice