Girls slippered in front of boys6

My classmate was called Barbara, and I can remember the event she recalled quite clearly, even after nearly half a century. In the first term of that year, our class was taken by a female teacher from New Zealand who was quite strict on classroom behaviour, and regularly slippered boys who chatted or otherwise misbehaved. The drill was that the boy would be told to come out to the front and bend over the seat of a chair; the teacher would then give him a whack on the bottom with her slipper, and tell him to go and sit down. This was quite a common occurrance, with maybe one or two slipperings a week. But the memorable event arose when Barbara was caught talking to her friend. There was an air of expectation when she was told to come out to the front. We were about to find out whether she’d get the same punishment as the boys.