Victorian town schools

Distressing experiences at school in the early 1900s

This page shows how children could be made very unhappy at school in the early 1900s due no fault of their own. This is probably as true today as it was then, but the examples are different. At the time, there was no shortage of parents and teachers who denied children the rights as individuals; and corporal punishment was rife. This page gives firsthand examples.

____

Extracted from the memoirs of the webmaster's mother (1906-2002) and edited by the webmaster with firsthand contributions from former pupils

I have some distressing memories of my schooldays in the early 1900s:

Conflict between school and parents: a child's distress

One unpleasant memory was when my mother refused to have my hair tied back as required by the school. My father went up to the school about it and even wrote to the Board of Education saying that he was refusing to have my hair tied back.

The response was that it wasn't a byelaw but a request as a precaution to control head vermin.

For some reason my father refused to comply, and I was singled out at school. The teachers used to have a cup of tea at morning break on the landing, and the next day as we filed past them, my teacher pointed a finger at me and with all the venom she could muster and said loudly so everyone could hear, "That's Florence Cole".

Being picked on by a teacher

On another occasion, my mother had to go out for some reason and as my father was in bed, I had to stay away from school to be on hand for him, which was not unusual at the time. In the afternoon when I returned to school and was in the assembly line in the playground, the teacher said - again loudly so everyone could hear, "And where were you this morning, Florence Cole?".

Childlike, I told the truth and said I had to look after my father. She in turn mimicked in a most derisory tone - and loudly, "She had to look after her father", which of course brought peals of laughter from everyone.

My father received a letter from the Board of Education cautioning him that he would be summoned if his child did not attend school, but it seemed to make no difference to him.

It wall all taken out on me at school, although it was out of my control. You can imagine how distressed I was, and it stayed with me throughout my time at school.

Being caned - a seemingly daily activity

Attempts to avoid being caned

Caning for girls

My second unpleasant memory was when I was in trouble again with the same school mistress. It was a needlework lesson and we were making pillow cases. At the end of the lesson we had to fold up the cases and were enjoying ourselves getting as much air into them as possible and causing a bang when we folded them. The mistress got annoyed and said the next girl to do it would have to come out to the front.

It so happened that I, along with my friends had some balloons. They must have been very cheap as they would not blow up easily. During this lesson my friend told me to blow mine up, and I had a go. Before it was any size, it burst. Immediately the mistress demanded, 'Who did that?', thinking it was a pillow case. Some little tell-tale said that it was Florence Cole who burst a balloon. I was sent to stand in the hall so that the headmistress would see me, which she did. After hearing my story, she gave me a letter to take home to my father asking for his opinion about what they should do. Should they cane me?

My father's answer of course was that the school should cane me. Did he want me to suffer at school? I like to think that he was just ill.

When she read his reply, she told me that she was loathe to do it because it would be a disgrace and my name would have to go down in the black book. So after another little pep talk, I was dismissed.

You can see that I was often in trouble at school. Yet I had two prizes for good behaviour. One was a print of a well-known picture called 'Between Two Fires', the fires being two women who were either side of a dining room table with a solitary male sitting there. The second was a small Royal Dalton vase. I also got a prize for a wild flower collection.

If you can add anything to this page or provide a photo, I would be pleased if you would contact me.

Text and images are copyright

sources: early 20th century material      sources: ww2 home front and other material     contact
the webmaster/author/researcher/editor     privacy policy

---

---