1. "At my Scottish high school we had a geography teacher who was a bit of a sadist, always armed with a thick Lochgelly belt," writes Von Cassidy. "If you forgot your books, however, he would kindly give you a choice – the belt or lines. The offending pupil invariably chose a whack or two of the strap, painful as it was, because writing his lines was much more painful – 'I must remember never to forget to remember to bring my geography equipment at the appropriate times during this term' - 50 or 100 times, depending on his mood. I still remember those lines 60+ years later."
2. Ian Beattie, of Hikurangi, taught at a rural high school and encountered a "cane" in the tech drawing room. "I picked it up in front of the rowdy class, they froze. I grinned, snapped it into many pieces and said: 'If I needed this thing to beat knowledge into you, you can stay ignorant'. I was the first technical teacher who had not threatened them and my 12 lovely years in the game, which I shouldn't have left, were delightful."
3. A reader writes: "On the school bus to Gore to learn woodwork my mates a year older told us youngies about the woodwork teacher who was known to throw chisels at errant boys. Sure enough, when I got into the classroom the blackboard had three chisel marks, one a hole right through. Best behaved class I was ever in."
Long eggs
Jill Mandeno writes: "In the Seventies, I had a good friend in the East End of London whose family made these tubular eggs. They were used to make pork and egg pies in a long rectangular shape for the pub and lunch trade. They were designed so that whenever you cut a slice of pie, it had a perfect slice of egg in the middle. They considered their technique to be a trade secret!"
