An Australian mum has revealed the unconventional way her primary school teacher would punish students who were talking too much during lessons.
The mum, who is now aged 70, made the admission to her daughter, who then shared it to Reddit on Friday.
“Weird school punishment,” the Aussie social media user titled the post.
“My mother (70) said she had a teacher at primary school make a boy suck a baby’s dummy as punishment for talking. Does this sound true?”
The post struck a chord with Aussies on the social media platform, and dozens have taken to the comments to share memories of their own school days and some of the strict punishments that were inflicted on them.
“Yep…that’s exactly the sort of [thing] that went on. Just to embarrass and humiliate,” one person wrote.
“Believable. I’m 55 and can remember The Strap. Got a few whacks on the hand if you were naughty,” another added.
“Guy I worked with in the 1990s said when he was at boarding school, one teacher made them have cold showers. In Winter.”
“My Year 1 teacher in the 80s – very old school – would wash your mouth out with soap if you swore,” a third person recalled.
Meanwhile, a fourth shared: “I had a teacher stand me in the corner with a peg on my tongue for talking too much in the mid 80s.”
Other people revealed the unusual ways their teachers would reprimand them, including one who was forced to “do all the dishes in the staff room for not doing homework”.
“I don’t know what those teachers were eating, but geez, they made a mess,” the 44-year-old joked.
Another person said they were made to “sand down” their metal work teacher’s car after being handed detention.
“I remember our metal work teacher used to make us sand down the car he was restoring as the year’s project for detention,” they divulged.
One more Aussie replied: “I did not do the dusting I was meant to do, so the teacher wiped the dust across my face. The use of a dummy does not surprise me.”
Laws banning cruel school punishments were gradually introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, with physical punishments becoming illegal in all Australian schools by the early 2000s.
It is unclear where the incident in question took place.