Recently, people have been writing into a local newspaper with stories about their experiences at school in ‘the olden days’. I thought people might be interested in reading a few that are on topic for here.
Bernard was 13 and attending a school in England when he came bottom of his class in a music exam.
“The teacher brought me out the front of the class, read out my mark, and slapped my face on the left cheek.
“Then she slapped my right cheek, then my left again.
“This went on for five or six slaps, my head flying backwards and forwards.
“Her name was Mrs Carter and she was the headmaster’s wife.
Jeff went to Preston Tech in the 1950s and recalls a teacher named Mr Noonan.
“If you played up in his class, you had to go outside and put your head under the cold tap, winter or summer.
“If you returned and your head wasn’t completely drenched, he’d pull of his belt and strap you.
“Ron Barassi and Bill Lawry went to Preston Tech. I wonder if they ever ran into Mr Noonan.”
JEFF told us on Tuesday about a teacher at Preston Tech named Mr Noonan and how he liked to strap boys who played up.
Well, Bryan says he taught with the same Mr Noonan and he was one of the finest principals he worked under.
“His name was Lou Noonan and he came to Echuca Tech at the age of 58 to try and knock it into some shape.
“He was certainly tough… a product of his times.
“He had a number of straps and they all had names. There was Black Lightning, Thunderball, Tom Thumb… he used them to terrify a generation of kids.
“Lou retired when he was 65, moved to Melbourne and died a few years ago aged in his 80s.”
ROGER was taught by Lou Noonan at Preston Tech and suffered his wrath.
“He carried two straps then, one called Flea Bite and the other Snake Bite.
“If you made and spelling mistakes, you would cop Flea Bite, which was the smaller of the two straps.
“But if you misbehaved, you got Snake Bite and that hurt considerably, especially on a cold mornings.”
John had a teacher at Canterbury State School in the 1930s called Mr Dance.
“Every Monday you’d walk into his classroom and, written on the blackboard would be `The Wallop Sum’.
“This was a sum and if you got it wrong, you got walloped.”
Shirley was in grade four at school in Broadford in 1935 when a teacher named Mrs Evans caught he writing a love letter.
“It was for someone else who couldn’t write. I even signed their name.
“The teacher, a bucked-tooth, mean thing, caught me, told me I should never falsely sign something and strapped me four times.”
Gordon attended Penders Grove Junior Tech, in Thornbury, in 1945 and had a maths teacher named Mr Robertson.
“Once a week, old Robbo would conduct a maths test which was self-correcting.
“Once correction was complete, the whole class was told to line up at the front and Robbo would ask each boy how many errors he had.
“Each mistake was greeted with a whack across the hand.
“I can’t remember anyone being lucky or unlucky enough to get all 10 questions right or wrong.”
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Another_Lurker
10K
256
Sep 25, 2012#2
<div style=”width:100%;background-image:url(/realm/A_L_123/A_L_trg.gif);”>Hi Dean Clarke,
A very interesting set of extracts, thank you. I presume the ‘Preston Tech’ mentioned is your Preston and not our Preston?</div>
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Guest
Sep 25, 2012#3
Recently, people have been writing into a local newspaper with stories about their experiences at school in ‘the olden days’. I thought people might be interested in reading a few that are on topic for here.
Bernard was 13 and attending a school in England when he came bottom of his class in a music exam.
“The teacher brought me out the front of the class, read out my mark, and slapped my face on the left cheek.
“Then she slapped my right cheek, then my left again.
“This went on for five or six slaps, my head flying backwards and forwards.
“Her name was Mrs Carter and she was the headmaster’s wife.
Jeff went to Preston Tech in the 1950s and recalls a teacher named Mr Noonan.
“If you played up in his class, you had to go outside and put your head under the cold tap, winter or summer.
“If you returned and your head wasn’t completely drenched, he’d pull of his belt and strap you.
“Ron Barassi and Bill Lawry went to Preston Tech. I wonder if they ever ran into Mr Noonan.”
JEFF told us on Tuesday about a teacher at Preston Tech named Mr Noonan and how he liked to strap boys who played up.
Well, Bryan says he taught with the same Mr Noonan and he was one of the finest principals he worked under.
“His name was Lou Noonan and he came to Echuca Tech at the age of 58 to try and knock it into some shape.
“He was certainly tough… a product of his times.
“He had a number of straps and they all had names. There was Black Lightning, Thunderball, Tom Thumb… he used them to terrify a generation of kids.
“Lou retired when he was 65, moved to Melbourne and died a few years ago aged in his 80s.”
ROGER was taught by Lou Noonan at Preston Tech and suffered his wrath.
“He carried two straps then, one called Flea Bite and the other Snake Bite.
“If you made and spelling mistakes, you would cop Flea Bite, which was the smaller of the two straps.
“But if you misbehaved, you got Snake Bite and that hurt considerably, especially on a cold mornings.”
John had a teacher at Canterbury State School in the 1930s called Mr Dance.
“Every Monday you’d walk into his classroom and, written on the blackboard would be `The Wallop Sum’.
“This was a sum and if you got it wrong, you got walloped.”
Shirley was in grade four at school in Broadford in 1935 when a teacher named Mrs Evans caught he writing a love letter.
“It was for someone else who couldn’t write. I even signed their name.
“The teacher, a bucked-tooth, mean thing, caught me, told me I should never falsely sign something and strapped me four times.”
Gordon attended Penders Grove Junior Tech, in Thornbury, in 1945 and had a maths teacher named Mr Robertson.
“Once a week, old Robbo would conduct a maths test which was self-correcting.
“Once correction was complete, the whole class was told to line up at the front and Robbo would ask each boy how many errors he had.
“Each mistake was greeted with a whack across the hand.
“I can’t remember anyone being lucky or unlucky enough to get all 10 questions right or wrong.”
Click to expand…
Yes , a very interesting collection. Obviously I realised it was Australia, because our ‘Preston tec’ ( Preston is down the road from me was actually ‘Harris college, which was a regional technical college, and later became a polytechnic , and then the University of central Lancashire no less. Someone wrote and asked me once if UCLN(University of Central Lancashire ) was associated with UCLA in California. I had to disabuse them of that notion I’m afraid.
Well I don’t think university students would take kindly to being told to go soak their heads in cold water ( though come to think it might wake some up in morning lectures ) . Nor would they take very kindly to being strapped. I joked about this today and some wag commented….no they certainly wouldn’t take it sitting down …boom! boom!
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dominum
1,407
Sep 25, 2012#4
Recently, people have been writing into a local newspaper with stories about their experiences at school in ‘the olden days’. I thought people might be interested in reading a few that are on topic for here.
Bernard was 13 and attending a school in England when he came bottom of his class in a music exam.
“The teacher brought me out the front of the class, read out my mark, and slapped my face on the left cheek.
“Then she slapped my right cheek, then my left again.
“This went on for five or six slaps, my head flying backwards and forwards.
“Her name was Mrs Carter and she was the headmaster’s wife.
Jeff went to Preston Tech in the 1950s and recalls a teacher named Mr Noonan.
“If you played up in his class, you had to go outside and put your head under the cold tap, winter or summer.
“If you returned and your head wasn’t completely drenched, he’d pull of his belt and strap you.
“Ron Barassi and Bill Lawry went to Preston Tech. I wonder if they ever ran into Mr Noonan.”
JEFF told us on Tuesday about a teacher at Preston Tech named Mr Noonan and how he liked to strap boys who played up.
Well, Bryan says he taught with the same Mr Noonan and he was one of the finest principals he worked under.
“His name was Lou Noonan and he came to Echuca Tech at the age of 58 to try and knock it into some shape.
“He was certainly tough… a product of his times.
“He had a number of straps and they all had names. There was Black Lightning, Thunderball, Tom Thumb… he used them to terrify a generation of kids.
“Lou retired when he was 65, moved to Melbourne and died a few years ago aged in his 80s.”
ROGER was taught by Lou Noonan at Preston Tech and suffered his wrath.
“He carried two straps then, one called Flea Bite and the other Snake Bite.
“If you made and spelling mistakes, you would cop Flea Bite, which was the smaller of the two straps.
“But if you misbehaved, you got Snake Bite and that hurt considerably, especially on a cold mornings.”
John had a teacher at Canterbury State School in the 1930s called Mr Dance.
“Every Monday you’d walk into his classroom and, written on the blackboard would be `The Wallop Sum’.
“This was a sum and if you got it wrong, you got walloped.”
Shirley was in grade four at school in Broadford in 1935 when a teacher named Mrs Evans caught he writing a love letter.
“It was for someone else who couldn’t write. I even signed their name.
“The teacher, a bucked-tooth, mean thing, caught me, told me I should never falsely sign something and strapped me four times.”
Gordon attended Penders Grove Junior Tech, in Thornbury, in 1945 and had a maths teacher named Mr Robertson.
“Once a week, old Robbo would conduct a maths test which was self-correcting.
“Once correction was complete, the whole class was told to line up at the front and Robbo would ask each boy how many errors he had.
“Each mistake was greeted with a whack across the hand.
“I can’t remember anyone being lucky or unlucky enough to get all 10 questions right or wrong.”
Click to expand…
Preston Tech has been mentioned on this forum by name before but I can’t remember where.
I’ve also mentioned it, but I’m not sure I ever named it. During the 1950s, Preston Tech was one of the largest schools in Victoria – certainly the largest technical school – and I spent some time there during my teacher training doing my teaching practice. It was an eyeopener for somebody who had been educated in the independent sector. As a student teacher, I was not supposed to use corporal punishment, but I was handed a strap when I arrived and told to use it as I saw fit as the boys would understand nothing else. I didn’t use it – I followed rules even if told not to, and besides, I was a only a few years older than the oldest boys and if a snobby Grammar boy had tried to belt them, it would have turned into a fist fight which I probably would have won but I suspected might cause some other issues to develop – but it was in constant use from what I could see and hear. I also saw them using the strap in the attached girls school which was absolutely a violation of state government policies in its schools.
Preston Tech evolved over time into a school that also offered higher technical education to people above school age, and eventually became – as it is now – the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) which almost entirely serves an above school age population and is regarded one of the best providers of non-university higher education especially vocational and technical courses in the state.
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KKxyz
3,590
53
Sep 26, 2012#5
Recently, people have been writing into a local newspaper with stories about their experiences at school in ‘the olden days’. I thought people might be interested in reading a few that are on topic for here.
Bernard was 13 and attending a school in England when he came bottom of his class in a music exam.
“The teacher brought me out the front of the class, read out my mark, and slapped my face on the left cheek.
“Then she slapped my right cheek, then my left again.
“This went on for five or six slaps, my head flying backwards and forwards.
“Her name was Mrs Carter and she was the headmaster’s wife.
Jeff went to Preston Tech in the 1950s and recalls a teacher named Mr Noonan.
“If you played up in his class, you had to go outside and put your head under the cold tap, winter or summer.
“If you returned and your head wasn’t completely drenched, he’d pull of his belt and strap you.
“Ron Barassi and Bill Lawry went to Preston Tech. I wonder if they ever ran into Mr Noonan.”
JEFF told us on Tuesday about a teacher at Preston Tech named Mr Noonan and how he liked to strap boys who played up.
Well, Bryan says he taught with the same Mr Noonan and he was one of the finest principals he worked under.
“His name was Lou Noonan and he came to Echuca Tech at the age of 58 to try and knock it into some shape.
“He was certainly tough… a product of his times.
“He had a number of straps and they all had names. There was Black Lightning, Thunderball, Tom Thumb… he used them to terrify a generation of kids.
“Lou retired when he was 65, moved to Melbourne and died a few years ago aged in his 80s.”
ROGER was taught by Lou Noonan at Preston Tech and suffered his wrath.
“He carried two straps then, one called Flea Bite and the other Snake Bite.
“If you made and spelling mistakes, you would cop Flea Bite, which was the smaller of the two straps.
“But if you misbehaved, you got Snake Bite and that hurt considerably, especially on a cold mornings.”
John had a teacher at Canterbury State School in the 1930s called Mr Dance.
“Every Monday you’d walk into his classroom and, written on the blackboard would be `The Wallop Sum’.
“This was a sum and if you got it wrong, you got walloped.”
Shirley was in grade four at school in Broadford in 1935 when a teacher named Mrs Evans caught he writing a love letter.
“It was for someone else who couldn’t write. I even signed their name.
“The teacher, a bucked-tooth, mean thing, caught me, told me I should never falsely sign something and strapped me four times.”
Gordon attended Penders Grove Junior Tech, in Thornbury, in 1945 and had a maths teacher named Mr Robertson.
“Once a week, old Robbo would conduct a maths test which was self-correcting.
“Once correction was complete, the whole class was told to line up at the front and Robbo would ask each boy how many errors he had.
“Each mistake was greeted with a whack across the hand.
“I can’t remember anyone being lucky or unlucky enough to get all 10 questions right or wrong.”
Click to expand…
Previous mentions of Preston Tech can be found here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/198833/m … 160079588/ Oct 5, 2006 9:19 PM
http://www.network54.com/Forum/198833/m … 140489771/ Feb 21, 2006 2:42 AM
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2015holyfamily
360
7
Jun 13, 2018#6
Corporal punishment in St Louis from 1881 there was 141 cases to 1.7 case per thousand in 1924.
The Evening Star October 16, 1932.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn … nge&page=1
777 kneeling on peas. Is that popcorn she’s kneeling on?
That’s a punishment she will never forget. A_L I will passively link from now on.????
https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/309411436888542284/
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Another_Lurker
10K
256
Jun 14, 2018#7
Hello American Way,
Quite ludicrously the Pinterest page you link obscures the content unless you join Pinterest, Facebook or Google, none of which I am inclined to associate with as a member. Happily even a modicum of HTML knowledge is adequate to bypass the pathetic protection mechanism. I presume that the picture you intended to link is this one
Difficult to know what the unfortunate young lady is being made to kneel on. Wouldn’t popcorn be a little soft? Could it be grits, which I believe is a grain of some sort? Kneeling on grits is I understand a once common punishment in the south of your great nation.
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2015holyfamilypenguin
4,320
69
Jul 03, 2018#8
September 29, 1860.
Four years of penal servitude for manslaughter! Can you imagine what that headmaster’s punishment would be today? His folks should have cried bl–dy murder.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newsp … 01-01-1839
