supply teacher (diary 1987/03/17)

Mr. Jones, our maths teacher, is ill for some weeks. For substitution a maths supply teacher from boy school comes every tuesday and thursday to teach us, its Mr. Henson.

When he came to us today he told us that he would not tolerate talking during the lessons. We have not ever seen Mr. Henson before and were very nervous when he started. He talked very quickly about algebra, he filled the black board and most of us did not understand.
Mindy asked her neighbour something about it and she laughed about the answer. Mr. Henson turned around, watched out for the giggling girl and recognized Mindy in the back of the room. He quickly walked to her told her to stand up and bend over. All of us were astonished! Mindy did what she was told and she got a heavy stroke with the belt Mr. Held in his hand. "I told you not to talk during my lesson" he said and returned to his desk in front. Mindy was so surprised rubbing her burning butt. All of us were very calm now following Mr. Hensons explanation.
I hope that Mr. Jones, our regular teacher, will return to school soon.

the quiet room

There was a rumour that in the basement of our school house would be an empty room called "the quiet room".
For very serious offences a girl could be locked up there for detention. We did not know much about it - until this day.
An older girl - Monica - escaped from the orphanage two weeks ago. All staff looked for her, they checked every room in the houses. She was not found, so police was informed. Eight days later Monica was caught stealing food in the grocery and so she was taken back to us by the police. She came to "the quiet room" for 3 days.
Later she told us that there was no bed and no chair in it. No posibility to sit down. She had to strip and stay there with no clothes, except underwear for these days. The room is empty to make the girl think over her behaviour without distracting her mind. Every morning she was allowed to go to restroom and she got some bread and water for the day. This was a punishment for running away. But she got additional punishment for stealing. The first day our headmistress came to her telling her about obeying, breaking the rules and about punishments. Monica was told to get 12 strokes by the senior cane every day she was in "the quiet room" for stealing outside the school. That means caning for 3 days in a row, alltogether 36 strokes! The canings were applied in the evening by her governess with our headmistress supervising. Monica told us that it was really hard. She showed us the marks of the cane - they lasted for about three weeks - I think.

caught smoking (diary 1989/11/12)

Yesterday when my son came home from school, he smelled like a cigarette. He did not admit having smoked, but after checking his pockets I was sure. Two packs of marlboro and a lighter appeared when i searched his bag. I remembered the time at school when I was smoking...
Getting caught at school and never admitting. But in the orphanage where I grew up strict rules were used to keep us in line. When I was caught first time in winter 1989 breaking the rules was not accepted. Our governess, Mrs Derovich took the three girls that were caught to her office. She took a little sponge for each of us and rubbed it with soap. After putting these smelly cigarettes in our mouth she will clean it up, she told us. We had to stand in a line and Mrs. Derovich soaped our mouths with this terrible sponge. We had to stand in corner for about 30 minutes, keeping this soapy sponge in mouth. One of us, Paula, was caught smoking earlier before, she got 6 strokes with a leather strap on each palm in addition.
I felt so humiliated wearing this sponge in my mouth and it was quite uncomfortable to taste the soap all the time. It took a long time I tried smoking again. So the punishment was quite effecctive in the past. I used it the same way yesterday to my son hoping he wont smoke again. His two packs of marlboro I flushed down the toilet.