Punishment

[gsjones]

Doh!!I was thinking of CH.

[Mid A 15]

I never remember anyone else being given that picking-up-stones punishment, maybe one of DR's mad one-offs! I think we were even made to count the stones - ridiculous and humiliating! On the subject of DR's Tuesday table, I think I sat up there twice and on the 2nd occasion there was also a man with DR, he was kindly, could it have been her brother? There were 4 of us girls and politics was the subject being discussed. Rosie from 7's very bravely, I thought at the time, disagreed with the views of DR and her companion! Dick Taverne ( ?) was the MP in question. Does anyone remember him?

This bloke?

http://www.libdems.org.uk/people_detail ... 9a9fa67e22

[englishangel]

I remember him, don't know why!

[Vonny]

Vonny! Vonny?

Then it was a Hertford punishment? What did any girl do to get stood up on the dais? Who superintended the punishment? Was it a punishment devised by a Housemistress? Just say it wasn't dear old Pot? No... couldn't have been!



It's so Jane Eyre-ish, I can hardly believe it.

C'mon, Vonny, tell!

Well I know for sure I had to stand up there once (maybe more?) and I think it was when Miss Morrison was head - I only had one year (1981-2) with Miss Tucker as head. I don't remember what I did to get this punishment. Pot definitely didn't give me the punishment! She was mainly in 6's though and only covered in 2's on the odd occasion. Was she really capable of dishing out punishments anyway?!
Another punishment dished out at Hertford was to sit with the monitors at the back of chapel instead of sitting with your house. Yes, I had that one too It was given to me by some of the school monitors who caught me and someone else under the stage in the school hall!

[Jo]

If I recall correctly, Dick Taverne was a maverick Labour pro-marketeer (as the EU was known in those days). In the 70s broadly speaking the Tories were pro-EU and Labour were anti. I have an idea he was MP for somewhere in the Lincoln area and I vaguely remember Rosie Kirkup talking about him so I assume he was her MP.

Frightening the trivia that the memory dredges up, given the right prompts

[Kim2s70-77]

DRs lunch on Tuesday. I think the social chit-chat thing was the idea. Perhaps that was why I was never one of the chosen ones. In seven years a never once had lunch with Dr. The difficulty was getting me to shut up.

I think you're right here, Mary. I'm being visited here by the fabulous image of you, holding the table-on-the-dais in a gale of stimulating laughter, with a bit of current events thrown in; perhaps even with a few passing references to your passion for the Sex Lives of the Ancient Gods. DR desperately trying to chip in with a few incisive comments, but failing dismally...

You did win, Caroline! I remember Meg Gunter standing over you and a plate of churned up Cheese Fish. Rumour had it that eventually she had to pretend to turn away whilst you transferred the Cheese Fish into your hanky. Otherwise she would have lost out on Free Time 14.00hrs to 14.30 hrs. Yup, no contest.

The standing-on-the-dais punishment thing has got to be post-DR. In seven years I remember DR humiliating a girl in public only three times. It just wasn't her style. Her method was strictly when she'd got you standing in front of her in her Study or in the Housemistresses Sitting Room - DR sitting, you standing - and then, wham! Something really hurtful delivered in that brusque all-for-your-own-good diction.

However, I'm baffled by the picking-up-stones thing. Different?

You are right, Angela!! A small group of us got busted once for scrumping apples from the apple tree in DRs garden (the branches hung over the fence - and it seemed fair game!) We were trooped into Dot's office and given a thorough dressing down on the subject of theft and where that would take us if we remained on that path. She dismissed everybody, but requested that I remain. After everyone had gone, she launched into a tirade about me coming from "bad seed", and therefore likely to amount to no good - especially now that I had embarked on a 'life of crime'. I think I was 12. These were apples. That was also "the year of Mrs Dean".

[englishangel]

I'm surprised any of us stayed out of jail.

[Angela Woodford]

You are right, Angela!! A small group of us got busted once for scrumping apples from the apple tree in DRs garden (the branches hung over the fence - and it seemed fair game!) We were trooped into Dot's office and given a thorough dressing down on the subject of theft and where that would take us if we remained on that path. She dismissed everybody, but requested that I remain. After everyone had gone, she launched into a tirade about me coming from "bad seed", and therefore likely to amount to no good - especially now that I had embarked on a 'life of crime'. I think I was 12. These were apples. That was also "the year of Mrs Dean".

This is partly stupid; potential "life of crime" indeed. But "coming from bad seed" is absolutely atrocious, unfeeling and just plain wrong. And yes; for any Old Girl who asks me if I would confront DR with my fury and indignation about this - absolutely!

Strange. Usually, DR never referred to our families and backgrounds, unless it were a reprimand for a Clerical Daughter. Even Miss Jukes bit her lips upon learning that my mother used self-raising flour for shortcrust pastry, which was absolutely - er - technically not correct.

But DR was despicable on this occasion, Elizabeth. Mrs Dean - a demented weird woman by all accounts. (Why did DR employ these women? A lack of ability to judge character?)

One would have expected better - considerably better - from a Headmistress.

[Kim2s70-77]

I believe she truly considered herself to be guiding me and giving me good advice. In my 20s, I learned some things about events in my family, of which I had been totally unaware during my CH days. DR must, however, have been aware of them. She probably believed she was doing her Christian duty. The manner she went about it, however, was less than helpful. I repeat - these were apples, and I was 12!!

[Jo]

You are right, Angela!! A small group of us got busted once for scrumping apples from the apple tree in DRs garden (the branches hung over the fence - and it seemed fair game!) We were trooped into Dot's office and given a thorough dressing down on the subject of theft and where that would take us if we remained on that path. She dismissed everybody, but requested that I remain. After everyone had gone, she launched into a tirade about me coming from "bad seed", and therefore likely to amount to no good - especially now that I had embarked on a 'life of crime'. I think I was 12. These were apples. That was also "the year of Mrs Dean".

This is partly stupid; potential "life of crime" indeed. But "coming from bad seed" is absolutely atrocious, unfeeling and just plain wrong. And yes; for any Old Girl who asks me if I would confront DR with my fury and indignation about this - absolutely!

Strange. Usually, DR never referred to our families and backgrounds, unless it were a reprimand for a Clerical Daughter. Even Miss Jukes bit her lips upon learning that my mother used self-raising flour for shortcrust pastry, which was absolutely - er - technically not correct.

But DR was despicable on this occasion, Elizabeth. Mrs Dean - a demented weird woman by all accounts. (Why did DR employ these women? A lack of ability to judge character?)

One would have expected better - considerably better - from a Headmistress.

Sadly, I suspect, a lack of any other candidates

[MaryB]

Once, when turning down a request from my parents for something - possibly a night away for a family event (triumph of hope over experience even to ask),DR removed her glasses, sucked meditatively at one earpiece, and pronounced "the thing is Mary, you're the apple of their eye". I went away clear that this was Not a Good Thing - my parents' judgement was seriously flawed, and I was thoroughly spoilt.
Mainly though I associate the glasses-removing-earpiece-sucking routine with the words, "This is right"... though what it was that was right, or even what kind of thing, I don't remember at all.

[Jo]

I'd forgotten she used to say that. That's it exactly, Mary - those exact words, in the form of a pronouncement: "this is right". It was rather an odd affectation.

[judy]

I think I probably have some authority to speak about punishments at CH , having received rather a lot of them...

Sitting at the top of the table next to the mons (a total nightmare if you were a vegetarian and could not pass your food to anyone )
Silent meals
Being made to stand out on the landing at night time for talking
Having to sew up your pockets
Having to write out the 119th psalm eight times
Being given a thousand lines and having an extra hundred for each day I did not get them in on time
Being confined in the infirmary
Being made to stand facing the wall for hours on end outside the housemistress's study
Having my tie taken away until I could earn it back!!!
Being moved from one house to another


Along with a whole range of petty humiliations and fairly vicious verbal attacks.
I did also on one occasion get hit by Miss Thompson but I have to confess to a fair degree of provocation on my part and I think she had just reached the end of her tether. I had a very complex relationship with Chemi T going from extreme fondness to outright hatred and later to really liking and respecting her!

[Angela Woodford]

I'd forgotten she used to say that. That's it exactly, Mary - those exact words, in the form of a pronouncement: "this is right". It was rather an odd affectation.

This is the pronouncement by which I most remember DR. It amused me to study her carefully whilst This-Is-Right-ing in order to produce a reasonably accurate impersonation. The trick was to assume a sort of scowl + a quilted jaw + a slight nod simultaneously.. yes, yes, I can still do it!

[englishangel]

Oh Judy, I remember all those punishments inflicted on you, particularly of course the house move one. I think your problem was you were a sort of 'George Washington', you could not tell a lie and would always stand up for yourself - and everyone else- which did not sit well with the prevailing administration.