05 July 1999 Hampshire UK Hi Wil
I heard that you and your folks are coming back to the UK- bet you're glad, I know how good I thought it was when we came back. Pa tells me that you are going to live here in the village and be our neighbours, I can think of a few things we might do to liven up rural life ! The bad news is that although you will be going to the Royal Grammar School, by the time you start, I will have left. Hence the purpose of this letter is to bring you up to speed about UK schools in general and this one in particular. Unlike the ones you've been attending these are not soft centres for student centred* learning ( * please note correct English spelling, people here are not very tolerant of American English so be warned). Rather , English public schools still believe that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton and most masters think they are still fighting that war. Uniforms, manners and discipline will be noticeable differences and if you err with respect to the first two, the third will rapidly be invoked.
This school is quite good, providing you try, the regime is benign and sometimes enjoyable. What you have to realise is that the teachers (and prefects) are playing a different game from the rest of us- but they haven't told us the rules so you have to work them out . Generally tell them what they want to hear- it makes life easier, treat their sarcasm as an art form - many of them are experts and above all realise that what they really want is a quiet life so any ideas about learning to think for yourself and questioning things should be put to one side.
Get it wrong and the prefects and masters give you detention - usually on a Thursday for about an hour after school. Minor strife/ errors normally provokes a dose of the slipper- usually not too bad but it can be embarrassing to be whacked ( about 4 times) in front of your class mates. Bad work, insolence, disruptive behaviour etc is normally rewarded by a caning- bare bum - in private. Really deep _s_h_i_t_ gets you to the headmaster, the treatment is the same, (< 8 bare) but an interesting letter is sent to your olds and if you really upset him the Head may invite your folks and whoever was the aggrieved to witness your punishment - not much fun at all.
Its only about a month till I leave this place and I thought I'd had my last thrashing-but life is full of surprises. This week I got dragged into a challenge tennis doubles match against the local comprehensive school. When we were changing ends one of my girl opponents kicked me in the nuts and then grabbed hold of them and twisted like mad. God it hurt. Now all this rather surprised me and when I recovered my breath I let out a few modest swear words as would almost anyone. Any way one of their games masters heard my little outburst and dragged me by the ear to chat with our own teachers, by sod's law the first one we found was Mr Ashford, one of those mature enthusiastic types who has recently left the army and is doing some teaching practise at our school prior to being let loose on the unsuspecting public and their children. This chap went ape and promised to sort things ( and me ) out as soon as we got back to school. So for everyone else it was off the minibus and home, but for me it was
"Gym office in 5 minutes - be there"
So I was. First of all it was ten minutes unabashed earache, lack of sportsmanship....bringing the school into disrepute....inappropriate language infront of younger and innocent girls ( any one who can do what she did is certainly not innocent) and finally breaking school rules. Will- its best not to argue, but I've never seen a school rule that forbids swearing when some townie girl tries to pull off your balls. Even then we did not get down to business he announced that he was going to experiment, he'd never punished me before , but he felt that he and my backside were going to have a lot to do with each other in the future ( I was dying to tell him that I was about to leave) - so he wanted to find out the best way of punishing me . Ominous or what ? This guy really spooked me and made me feel about 10cm tall.
"Bend over the desk"
I bent over ,stuck my bum up in the air and rested my head on my forearms on the desk top. I felt him fold my blazer across my back, nothing happened for about 20 seconds then he crashed a plimsoll into my behind. The noise was louder than I expected and it stung like hell- but quickly faded. In total I had six swipes.
"That was for bad sportsmanship- now standup. Hang your blazer on that hook and lower your trousers to your ankles. Good , now bend over again . Legs apart and pull your shirt out of the way"
For bringing the school into disrepute I was given another six. The loss of my trousers made no noticeable difference to the pain levels. I was told to stay down but instead of giving me another lecture he just pulled down my briefs till they were resting on top of my trousers. I know it does not make much difference, but I prefer to take down my own underwear rather than have someone do it to me. It gives me the psychological feeling of an element of control and co operation rather than a complete loss of control.
For using corrupting and profane language infront of young ladies ( what a load of crap!) Ashford used what I now know to be a tawse. Much heavier than the slipper this both stung and produced a much deeper pain. Another six , with each blow I was pushed forward so violently that I expected to have wood splinters from the desk in my hips and belly. It was a really hot day and I was dripping buckets of sweat onto the desk top- I don't think he liked that.
The final stage of the experiment was the cane ( standard response for breaking school rules). If you've never been caned, it's a bit like a backwards thunder storm, first there is a loud thump as the wood strikes you and almost instantly a heavy pain, then a few seconds later is a lightening strike of intense pain and heat . Another six, and that should have been the end of things. He told my to standup and pull up my underpants. Rent-a-mouth that I am, I asked if that meant my trousers as well. It did not and I was back over the desk having four more of the tawse for being insolent.
I'm not sure what he thought the conclusion of the experiment was, but to my mind it showed that there are different types of pain and the effects vary in their duration but all are pretty nasty and you cant really say one is worse than any other. The cane marks will probably last about a week and although intense at the time the pain is now almost gone , whereas the strap has produced bigger and deeper bruising and if you could measure these things , will probably cause more pain in total than the other methods. All the reddening from the plimsoll has now gone. Incidently two of the cane marks show below and to the side of my briefs, there will be trouble if father sees them so I'll have to remember to wear shorts rather than speedos when we go swimming tomorrow.
In fairness to Ashford ,he stood behind me throughout this punishment and although he doubtless had a good view of my arse and anything else visible between my parted legs he did not indulge in perving my genitals which so many of his peers seem to regard as normal.
After I'd got dressed, Ashford really upset me. If he passes his exams he has a job at the Abbey school which of course is where I'm going in September. So life is looking a bit fraught as I've already upset one of the masters before I start in the school. My elder brother - you know how well we get on ( not )-will be a prefect and of course at that school prefects are allowed to cane. Between the two of them I think my tail is going to be sore quite often.
I'd better go now -Drop me a line if you want to hear about how I get on at the new school, but of course I won't know till September
Best wishes -Try and keep out of trouble
Robbie
Foot note this is the last of the stories about Robbie as a junior boy at the Royal Grammar School. In September he starts as a boarder at the Abbey school- please e-mail me if you want to know how he gets on , if there is enough interest Robbie may be persuaded to put pen to paper.