Miss Hall had been teaching within my school for a couple of years and had a reputation for being one of the best and strictest in the school so when I found out that I was going to be in her class for history in my 4th year I knew that I would have to be really careful not to come to her attention as I have a really cheeky streak in me. Even though I was thinking of it in my first class with Miss Hall my innate temperament came to the fore when she asked me a question and I gave her a very sarcastic response. Momentarily anger flashed across Miss Hall’s face and I knew that I was in trouble.
‘You will return to this classroom at the end of the day Kenneth’ Miss Hall says calmly giving me a couple of periods to consider my fate.
‘Well I see the reports that you are a cheeky and impertinent young man are true Kenneth. I will not tolerate any pupil talking to me like that and I have no doubt that you have heard my reputation as the strictest teacher in the school. I am about to demonstrate that this reputation is justified and I hope that one application of the tawse will be sufficient to teach you not to push me but if it is not then it will be repeated until such time as you do learn the lesson. You will now assume the position and will receive three strokes on each palm’ Miss Hall says calmly as I am standing in front of her and it is her calmness that frightens me the most.
Miss Hall certainly wasn’t the first teacher to tawse me so I knew exactly the position that I had to take up and I didn’t want to give her any excuse to add to the six that I was already getting. I extended my arms straight out in front of me and rested my left hand on top of the right one watching while Miss Hall pulled the tawse from her desk drawer. It looked worryingly thick and barely bent when she held it out straight. It was a three-tailed tawse and these always seemed to be worse than two-tailed ones for some reason. Miss Hall walked round her desk and turned me round so that I was facing her and it was then that I realised she was almost as tall as me. I watched Miss Hall take the tawse up and over her shoulder before she brought it down sharply across my left hand. I hear the splat as the tawse contacts my hand and it tries to push my arms down but they are braced tightly enough that it doesn’t happen. For a fraction of a second I don’t feel a thing but then the pain hits me like a crashing wave. I grit my teeth and screw my eyes shut to try and stop Miss Hall from seeing the effect that it had had on me but she was experienced enough to know that it had gotten through to me.
I opened my eyes again just in time to see the tawse being rested over Miss Hall’s shoulder again and again it was brought down sharply onto my palm. This time there was not even a fraction of a seconds respite from the pain because it coursed straight through me from the moment the tawse landed. I reacted in exactly the same way to this stroke but after the third one to my left hand I gave a yelp because it was even harder and when I looked down at my hand I saw just how red it was.
‘Change hands Kenneth’ Miss Hall instructed and I did it. My left hand felt like it was three times its normal size as the left one sat on top of it and this meant that I could feel it throbbing as if it had its own heart beat. I look into Miss Hall’s face as she is about to deliver the first stroke to my right hand and there is a look of concentrated determination on her face. Her focus is on my palm until just after the stroke lands with a splat and then she looks up into my face seeing my reaction. As I open my eyes again I think that I can see a ghost of a smile on Miss Hall’s face and this remains as she completes the tawsing with another two devastating strokes. It was easily the hardest tawsing that I had received from any teacher and it made me truly fear a repeat dose because it would be more than three to each hand.
‘As I said Kenneth I hope this punishment will have been sufficiently severe that I don’t have to repeat it’ Miss Hall says as she is replacing the tawse on the desk.
‘I hope that you won’t have to repeat it Miss Hall’ I say sincerely for probably the first time in my life. Through the year Miss Hall did have to tawse me a couple of times but this was far less than in most of my other classes and she also proved herself to be a brilliant teacher so I respected and responded very well to her. I didn’t take history in my 5th year because I was intending to take it in my 6th and final year. During my 5th year corporal punishment was banned and this had a very negative effect on my behaviour because lines and detentions didn’t have anything like the same effect on me. Despite this decline in my behaviour I still did really well in my exams so had a free choice in the subjects that I took in my final year and history was one of these and Miss Hall made sure that she was teaching the class that I was in. I still had a deep level of respect for Miss Hall and she is still a very strict teacher but without the very real and direct threat of the tawse behind her I acted up a bit more. I was still better in Miss Hall’s class than I was in the others where the bad points in my character began to dominate my good points. Having received unconditional offers from my first and second choice universities had definitely not helped this because it meant I didn’t have to worry about my exam results. Early on in the year Miss Hall kept me behind at the end of the day to talk to me about my behaviour although in reality it was more a case of her talking at me.
‘You are one of the more intelligent boys in this school yet you seem intent on wasting your ability through laziness, complacency and an astonishing arrogance’ Miss Hall says as she is perched on the edge of her desk looking intently at me from a few feet away. I start to respond to this accusation.
‘You will not interrupt me Kenneth’ Miss Hall says and I put on a surly expression, ‘and you will not look at me like that either Kenneth’ she continues and the tone of her voice tells me that she means it.
‘Although you were a challenge to teach two years ago it was a very nice challenge but now you are just an ignorant little brat who thinks they are better than the school. You never prepare for lessons preferring to rely on your intelligence so that you can bluff your way through things and I know for a fact that you play truant regularly but because the school does not want to be seen as having a problem it will not take any action against you for this. One of the reasons why you used to be such a nice challenge to teach was because you are a wonderful debater but now instead of using these skills you are just plainly argumentative and you seem to pick arguments purely for fun’ I have not enjoyed hearing any of this because deep down I know that it is true which hurts but I start to open my mouth to defend myself since I don’t want to admit the failings. Miss Hall’s look cuts me dead in my tracks.
‘I have seen you out and about with your girlfriend and your older sister and with both of these people you are the perfect gentleman but here in school you are anything but the perfect gentleman. Here you are rude, insolent, cruel and sometimes wicked towards boys and girls and even towards the teachers where you are also utterly disobedient. This behaviour is utterly intolerable and there must be something more to it than simply the fact that teachers can no longer belt you so what do you have to say for yourself Kenneth?’ Miss Hall finally concludes the lecture. I sit silently for a minute or two taking in everything that Miss Hall has said and trying to devise an appropriate answer.
‘If my behaviour was that bad then surely the school would have done something about it’ I start unconvincingly.
‘You know as well as I do Kenneth that your behaviour is that bad and the only reason the school hasn’t done anything about it is because it is trying to save its reputation as the best school in the area so to suspend or expel a pupil takes something very major’ Miss Hall answers seeing through my attack, ‘so I suggest that you start again Kenneth and be honest this time’ she concludes sharply.
‘As you yourself said Miss Hall I am an intelligent boy, and thank you for the compliment, but this means that I find the work that is expected of me very easy and when things are too easy for me I get bored and when I’m bored I would tend to be very fractious so causing trouble is a way of relieving my boredom particularly because I know that the school isn’t going to suspend or throw me out. It is true to say that when teachers could belt me it was the best way of motivating me and keeping me out of trouble but even then as you may know you were the teacher who got the best out of me as I fully respected you and you challenged me in class whereas most other teachers let me get on with things. I am sorry for the trouble that I have caused and I honestly do want to improve but I’m not sure how it is going to happen’ I answer having realised that Miss Hall will see through any attempt to lie to her or even partially hide the truth.
‘Thank you Kenneth for answering me honestly and I suspected that your problems may stem from laziness but I can see that your explanation of boredom is more accurate. Surely however you want to get into university next year so will have to do well in the exams to get there?’ Miss Hall asks.
‘Yes I am going to university next year but my results were good enough last year that I have been given unconditional offers by my first and second choice universities so I don’t have any pressure from that side’ I answer and there is a look of surprise on Miss Hall’s face at this.
‘In that case Kenneth I am going to have to find another way in which to motivate you. I would like your permission to speak to your parents privately’ Miss Hall says.
‘I have no problem with you speaking to my parents privately Miss Hall however you would find it more useful to speak to my older sister and my girlfriend as they have a lot more influence over me than my parents’ I answer.
‘In that case I will speak to them instead so please give me their mobile numbers so that I can get in touch’ Miss Hall says and I hand over the numbers. Alison, my girlfriend, is a couple of years older than me and she had decided not to go off to university because a good job offer had come up in one of the local banks. Emma, my sister, is four years older than me and she is now training to be an accountant and neither of them tolerates any misbehaviour from me although it is only Emma that punishes me corporally if I misbehave. Alison simply has to use a tone of voice to indicate her displeasure and I modify my behaviour because I never want to upset her.
‘I want you to think very carefully about what I have said Kenneth and I will see you at the end of the week to discuss how I am going to bring about the improvement in your behaviour that you want to happen’ Miss Hall says before dismissing me and all the way home I am thinking about what has been said to me and going through my behaviour since last year picking out lots of examples of everything that Miss Hall has said. By the time I get home I am very angry with myself so it is almost a relief when Alison phones that evening and asks me to come round to see her.
‘Once you start wasting your talent like you are you will never get it back so your behaviour and attitude must improve from this moment forward’ Alison says as soon as I am in the flat taking me completely by surprise so Miss Hall has obviously talked to her already. Shortly afterwards there is a call on my mobile phone and I look at it to see that it’s Emma that is calling so I let it go to my voicemail knowing that I wasn’t going to like what Emma was saying. After this abrupt start to my evening with Alison she uses all of her charm and subtlety to probe my mind and I had soon admitted to her that everything Miss Hall had told her was true. I also told her that when Miss Hall had been lecturing me I had known that it was true but had not wanted to admit and Alison tells me that at least now that I’ve admitted there is a problem we can work on solving it.
‘I’ve seen you with Emma and like Miss Hall I’ve never seen you being anything other than a perfect gentleman with her, like you are with me, so what is it about her that inspires this in you which none of the teachers seems to be able to replicate?’ Alison asks.
‘I guess it is because I fear, respect and love Emma that I behave around her and if I don’t she has no hesitation in giving me a hard spanking to modify my behaviour’ I answer.
‘I want to know everything that happens when Emma punishes you and I also want to know what it is about me that inspires you to be a perfect gentleman?’ Alison continues.
‘With you Alison it is something psychological that inspires good behaviour on my part because I know from the tone of your voice if I have displeased you and this makes me feel absolutely terrible so I never want to do it and if I do then I will try to modify my behaviour so that it doesn’t happen again. As for what happens when I am with Emma then it is very simple. I am given one warning look if I do something to displease or disobey her and if this doesn’t change my behaviour then the next time she swats my bottom with her hand irrespective of where we are at that moment. This tells me that whenever we reach a private space I will be going over her lap for a hard, bare bottomed spanking. Should I be stupid enough to continue upsetting her then the punishment increases in intensity with each offence starting with her hairbrush then a wooden paddle. A tawse and cane are used if I upset her still further and if I still don’t learn then Emma uses everything on me until I am truly repentant. Only once has Emma had to go this far with me and that was last summer when she was looking after me when my parents were on holiday and I persisted in refusing to tell her where I had been during the day because I’d been spending it with you instead of studying. By the end of the punishment I had told Emma what she wanted to know and I could feel it whenever I sat down for four days afterwards. Despite this I still love Emma deeply as a sister’ I answer.
‘Remember what I have said about your behaviour Ken’ Alison says as she is giving me a kiss on the cheek as I’m going home for the night.
‘Little brother there is something we need to discuss. You will call me as soon as you get home tonight’ was Emma’s message which I checked as I was walking home and when I got in I called Emma from my mobile.
‘I had a call from Miss Hall, one of your teachers, earlier this evening after you have given her my number which was a good first step. Miss Hall gave me a disgraceful report on your behaviour over the last year. Is this behaviour going to change Ken?’ Emma asks although it really wasn’t a question as there is only one possible answer.
‘Yes Emma I want to change this behaviour which is why I gave Miss Hall your number’ I answered.
‘Well let me just say that if your behaviour does not improve then I will tan your behind so hard that you will not be able to sit comfortably for a month!’ Emma answers before ending the call. I know that she means it and equally importantly I know that she will have absolutely no second thoughts if she has to do it. I was called to Miss Hall’s room at the end of the day on Friday and she told me that the second meeting would take place at 7.30pm at her house instead of in school. I didn’t think anything of this at the time and took the address when it was handed to me. My parents are used to me going out at the weekend so there are no questions when I leave at 7pm.
I am greeted by the frightening sight of Miss Hall sitting on the sofa flanked by Emma and Alison. Alison explained what I had said to her about why I behaved so well around her and Emma including the fact that it was respect, fear and love that drove this obedience. Emma then said that I had told her that I wanted to improve my behaviour before outlining the threat she had made to me if I didn’t improve.
‘Well Kenneth it seems like you have admitted your faults to yourself and genuinely do want to improve your behaviour. I have discussed this situation with both Alison and Emma and we have decided upon a solution that will provide you with the necessary fear and motivation to improve. As you will know I am no longer allowed to belt you at school however this restriction does not apply to Emma and I believe that because you told me to contact her you actually realise that you need to receive corporal punishment for these sins and therefore you are likely to agree to me punishing you outside of school as well. Therefore I will be keeping a weekly report on your behaviour and once a week you will be called to account and punished by Emma in front of us for these offences. Do you agree to this and do you also agree that I can join Emma in punishing you as a result of this offence?’ Miss Hall asked.
‘Yes Miss Hall I agree to this approach and I also agree to you punishing me alongside Emma as a result of this report’ I answer because even if I hadn’t agreed Emma would have punished me anyway.
‘Very well your first punishment will now take place’ Miss Hall says.
Great story…had me fully engaged and feeling the punishment and wishing I was on the receiving end…
Great story…really had me engaged and feeling the anticipation and the punishment…also made me wish I was on the receiving end…three females that care enough about me to discipline me…awesome..
A slight disconnect here. The last use of the tawse in Scots schools was in in 1984 (earlier in the case of some education authorities). A year later, there was, indeed, an early mobile phone network in the UK, but it was accessible only to the insanely rich or large companies. The phones were those proverbial huge and heavy “bricks” on which you could get an hour’s talk time after 8 hours of charging. Mind you, holding the thing to your ear for anything like an hour would be a feat of strength. Neither were they really very mobile or particularly easy to carry around. They wouldn’t fit in an ordinary pocket, for example, and needed to be carried in some sort of bag.
Mobile phones in the mid-80s were status symbols for the wealthy and powerful but shallow, not something available to teenagers as they are today. You saw the occasional idiot posing with one in the first class section of trains -”Look at me, I’ve got a mobile phone, proving that I’m very important”. For some reason, the few people who had mobiles in those days always SHOUTED into them instead of speaking. It was part of the “Look at me” show, I think. I guess there must have been a few women who had mobile phones then, but I only ever saw men with them back in those “Loadsamoney” days of high Thatcherism. The men who had them probably also had high performance cars costing as much as it takes to build a block of flats. Believe it or not, there were actually dummy mobiles made and sold to people who wanted to pose as rich and “important” but couldn’t afford a real mobile phone.
Good story, but no, people like Emma, Alison, the fictional you or Miss Hall did NOT have mobile phones in 1985. Teenagers had to go to phone boxes, of which there were many more then, to have the conversations they didn’t want overheard on their parents’ phone (or “landline”, as it’s now called). If it was one of those phone boxes which doubled as a public urinal for drunks, the experience would be smelly.