The Changing Way of Schooling3

it’s nonsense to suggest that teachers in the 1960s weren’t interested in hugging a hurt student or comforting them. I certainly was – and did when it was appropriate to do so – hugging wasn’t all that common, mainly because the boys I taught were of an age where unless they were very distressed indeed, they would have been so embarrassed by the idea of being hugged, it would have been counterproductive – but a pat on the back, or on the shoulder, and other less effusive forms of physical affection were most definitely something I did as a teacher back then when a boy needed that type of attention. And there were boys I did hug if they really needed that, it just wasn’t common that they did. And I certainly wasn’t the most affectionate of teachers – there were many more who did it far more than I did.

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