Know exactly what you mean! Yet my son always said he had more respect for the teacher who greeted the class every day with "All right, you horrible lot!!" than for the one who entered with a merry "Hi, guys!"

When I asked why, he pointed out that 'Hi, guys!' was phoney, patronising and insincere, but on the other hand "We are a horrible lot, we know it, and so do they, so at least it's honest!"

I had teachers who were academics from Oxford or Cambridge, who assumed everyone around them was as intelligent and educated as they were. Another was brilliant, but clearly had some form of Tourettes that manifested in a variety of tics and an odd, jerky manner of speaking, making him scary to younger pupils and a figure of fun for older ones. Then there was the former Company Sergeant-Major who was prone to slip into parade-ground mode when faced with an unruly class or pupil. He'd slip up behind me and say quietly "Am I hurting you, Atkinson?" I'd reply "No, sir.". The response would be a thunderous roar of "WELL, I SHOULD BE LAD, 'COS I'M STANDIN' ON YOUR HAIR!" - It was ineffective, I wear my hair long to this day! The only Black lad in the class was also the tallest, naturally we called him 'Tiny', but the CSM called him "You great long streak of yesterdays' dishwater!"

Pupils were frequently castigated for being 'dim' or 'thick' before either being given the help they'd asked for, told to do extra work, or caned. I strongly suspect that there were few ill-effects from all this, since it was a private school and most of the pupils came from privileged backgrounds. The class system assured them of University places and good jobs. As a scholarship boy, I lacked this fallback, but I was a tough specimen, it appears, because I've made my way to a good place.

Whether pupils were more robust back then, or whether lives were blighted by aggressive and cruel teachers is something that deserves investigation.