FACTORY FODDER SCHOOL
1999
Woodcut – No 2 of a trio
122x170cm
ENQUIRE
The school I went to can only be described as a ‘Factory Fodder School’ (which was the title of a large woodcut I made years later documenting these experiences).
In this environment education did not feel like a priority and my school time memories revolved around violence both inside and outside of the classroom . Physical punishment was dished out liberally by the teachers and each teacher had a speciality. The technical drawing teacher used a full palmed open finger jab into the solar plexus plunged with force whilst the history teacher would continuously strike wayward pupils on the funny bone whilst calling them a ‘ruddy fool’. The French teacher carried a long stick to hit anyone with who didn’t know the answer, that would be swung round unexpectantly usually by creeping up from the behind. The English teacher would drop piles of heavy books on you , but the master punisher of them all was the maths teacher who was a well-built Welsh rugby player schooled in torture techniques designed to humiliate and silence pupils (which they rarely did). One speciality included picking up the unruly class member then turning them upside down and putting their footprints on the ceiling before hanging them off the clothes pegs by the uniform for the rest of the lesson. The worst one of all was called a ‘Special’ during which the pupil would be taken into the corridor of the flimsy mobile classroom , lifted up off the ground then he repeatedly batter the pupils head off the wall making the class vibrate enough to swing the door back shut which was the signal of the end of the punishment. Outside was just as violent and instead of a pencil case I carried an iron bar for defence just to get to school. Needless to say, I didn’t pass many exams which didn’t seem important at the time because we were going straight to the factories any way from the ‘factory fodder school’.
In this environment education did not feel like a priority and my school time memories revolved around violence both inside and outside of the classroom . Physical punishment was dished out liberally by the teachers and each teacher had a speciality. The technical drawing teacher used a full palmed open finger jab into the solar plexus plunged with force whilst the history teacher would continuously strike wayward pupils on the funny bone whilst calling them a ‘ruddy fool’. The French teacher carried a long stick to hit anyone with who didn’t know the answer, that would be swung round unexpectantly usually by creeping up from the behind. The English teacher would drop piles of heavy books on you , but the master punisher of them all was the maths teacher who was a well-built Welsh rugby player schooled in torture techniques designed to humiliate and silence pupils (which they rarely did). One speciality included picking up the unruly class member then turning them upside down and putting their footprints on the ceiling before hanging them off the clothes pegs by the uniform for the rest of the lesson. The worst one of all was called a ‘Special’ during which the pupil would be taken into the corridor of the flimsy mobile classroom , lifted up off the ground then he repeatedly batter the pupils head off the wall making the class vibrate enough to swing the door back shut which was the signal of the end of the punishment. Outside was just as violent and instead of a pencil case I carried an iron bar for defence just to get to school. Needless to say, I didn’t pass many exams which didn’t seem important at the time because we were going straight to the factories any way from the ‘factory fodder school’.