Although we didn’t stand if a Master entered a room, if the Headmaster came in you jumped to your feet and stood to attention until he signalled resumption of seats, even in the middle of a lesson. Unless you were very brave or very bolshie you meant it too. He was the sort of man […]

All teaching staff were addressed as Sir or Miss regardless of marital status, the exception being the Head who given the full title of Miss , Mr Surname, language teachers Madame or Frau followed by surname, Like Steve’s mentors a few warranted alternative names .but NOT within earshot. It was also deemed good manners and […]

My response : ‘No thank you , Ma’am!’ . At that the classroom erupted in mirth. From that moment onwards I started to be know by my shortened Christian name as a ‘handle’, by both staff and students alike. Worse, if Miss F.. wanted to talk to me for a minute , outside class, to […]

As I now realise , having taught myself, she would clearly be conscious that knowing me well she must treat us all alike, and especially give me no latitude that could be interpreted as favouritism ……….. Something she said to my table partner( we were in our newest classroom block with ‘tables ‘ for two) […]

Of course, in school, up to the sixth form, as was traditional in Boys’ schools at that time we were all called by our Surnames, anything else thought completely unacceptable. On her first day of teaching as acting deputy head she took our year group for History. Now she hadn’t warned me she was going […]

At my School with the teaching staff ( in those days ‘Masters’ and ‘Mistresses’) it was ‘Sir’ or ‘Dr’ ,with Matron as ‘Matron’ or ‘Miss’. When Miss F arrived there was a curious piece of sexism : she was , of course , as a Ph. D, entitled to Dr.- but for some reason that […]

When in the States in the last couple of weeks , I noticed how incredibly polite all of the students were that I met. All without exception referred to you as ‘Sir’ or ‘Professor’ , even though you were just visiting their institution. But in Southern Society as a whole there still seems to be […]

Louisianans always say “yes sir” or “yes ma’am” to their teachers up until the 5th grade by civil law since 2000 albeit a 2005 study showed that the state never enforced it. The law was nicknamed the Aretha Franklin law. It was a way for the state affirming Southern manners. Some schools have written it […]

So if one came across a young lady walking along a corridor in T-shirt and shorts, that usually meant only one thing: she was on her way to the heads study and would soon be bending over to receive a sound caning across the tightened seat of those shorts. On more than one occasion I […]