In retrospect they were pretty cool
In reality, I guess my parents were pretty cool…
During my formative years (7-11) I was educated in the West coast of Scotland in a school run by Jesuits (the SS of the RC community).
The secular teachers were out and out bastards.

At the age of 7, it was not uncommon for me to come home to the question of “How many of the belt did you get today?” and for my response to be 14, 15 or 16… Indeed Miss Boyle (I hope the bitch is dead now) used to issue the ferula (sp?) for every word spelt incorrectly, every mental arithmetic sum wrong, chewing your pencil, scratching your ear… anything that satisfied the psychotic witch’s sense of discipline.

On one occasion, I could not account for the number of strokes that I had received that day.

I did not know what was to transpire as a result of that.

My parents had been waiting for the day when I could not balance the figures. They contacted the SJ headmaster instructed him to attend our home.

When he arrived, it was pointed out to him that whilst they felt that the discipline had been excessive and over-enthusiastic, they now challenged the ethos of the school on the basis of the value in chastising a child if they cannot remember what the punishment is for.

He was told in no uncertain terms that any further abuse of their role (in parentis locus) would lead to legal action (if not his arse being whipped in public).

My parents were really quite cool… They weren’t soft… my mum was a teacher with her own tawse and that did effin hurt!!

Thank you for this question… I’ve never really thought about them in that light before.
But it has brought back memories of that bloody school… So I’ll post another one later
(bof, Thu 10 Sep 2009, 15:27, Reply)