Delete if one is not interested in narrative commentaries. It has been suggested in the media over the past months that in order for such as office workers to improve their health they should stand at their desks rather than sit....” Research suggests that the more we sit, the more we’re likely to develop heart disease and other illnesses,including diabetes and cancer...sitting on the couch watching t.v. or at the computer.... Solution: set the alarm to go off every 30-60 minutes, pace during phone calls and watch less t.v...” Fancy that now! The Scottish (Glasgow) Education Authority must have figured this out right from the get-go as teachers’ desks were of standing height (a la Dickens’ sketches), as it were. There were no chairs of comparable height for the teacher to sit at to take the weight off. I don’t even recall the teacher leaning against the desk if tired. After presenting the lessons on the blackboard (none of this transitional green to white ‘plastic’ to smart boards), pupils set to to perform the assignment as the teacher walked up and down the aisles to make sure they were on task, that their handwriting was better than legible, and that they were not cheating! Never once during the whole school day did the teacher sit down. Jotters were brought to this high desk for such as spelling or handwriting to be corrected. The desktop was a little lower than the child’s eye-level, so that there was instant feedback as one’s work was checked. Both teacher and pupil stood. The inside of this high desk was not like the Labyrinth of Knossos. There was a place for everything and everything in its place, including the coiled up black leather belt at the back of the desk. Why at the back as it was used all too frequently, depending on how “strap happy’ the teacher was! The belt was named strap or tawse. The belt (strap) used in Glasgow was all of one piece and long enough for the teacher to wind around her fist a few times. The Lochgelly strap was eventually deemed illegal in the public schools as the split ends caused the skin to break. http://johndick-leathergoods.co.uk/the-true-history-of-the-lochgelly-tawse-times-are-changing.htm Depending on the amount of pain to be inflicted, the shorter the length of the strap the less pain to the palm of the hand. If it was a mild infraction, such as copying a wrong number off the board, one got a whack on one ‘single’ palm. If there was a major infraction, such as being too careless with one’s work or talking to one’s classmate (absolutely verboten), one would get a’ double,’ one hand supporting the other so that there was little or no give when the strap came whacking down. On occasion a boy would separate his hands just as the belt descended and it would whack the teacher’s thigh instead. All holy heck would break out and the boy (always a boy!) was ‘invited’ to place one hand on top of the other (a double) on top of this high desk. There was no give as she pressed her fingers on the child’s wrist to prevent ‘escape’ as the belt came slamming down. Even a single caused red marks on the palm, and if the belt was brought down hard enough, the pupil would cool his/her palm against the iron support of the desk, fighting back tears, even the ‘tougher’ boys. The toughest of the tough rarely felt it a badge of honour to get the belt. No talking back EVER! There was a very minor riot one time though when a boy couldn’t spell worth a hang. He’d been warned that he’d get the belt for each word he mis-spelled. Lo and behold, out he’s ‘invited’ to get the belt for each word out of 10 he spelled wrong. Doubles, not singles: One, two, three four, five whacks...then there was the rumble from the classroom in protest that he’d only mis-spelled three words, the best ever for him. There was no apology, only the comment that the next time he ‘deserved’ the belt he was to remind her. This boy’s father was a j.p., and it’s a wonder there wasn’t a huge outcry at the way he was mistreated. Another time a girl said she was not to get the belt as her sister had fainted. Too bad, that was her sister, put out your hand! It would take book to relate the instances of ‘child abuse,’ for that was really what it was. As it was the ‘law,’ there was no recourse unless the parents were strong enough to buck the system in court to defend their children, as eventually happened in the 1990s. Charles Dickens’ times? Yes! It took another 50 years before corporal punishment in the schools was finally abolished. That was the way schoolchildren were made to toe the mark under the Scottish (Glasgow) Education Authority school system up until the 1990s. Some teachers never used the belt, whilst enough of them were altogether too strap happy. There was indeed ‘order in the court’ and as a result pupils did learn and were not distracted by the bad behaviour of others. Maybe standing at their desks all day made the teachers super ‘healthy’ and ‘somebody’ knew something years ago that they are only now figuring out! Maisie