I know that everyone's always banging on about the good old days, always harking on about the nanny state and moaning about health and safety everything and political correctness having gone way too far. I've been known on occasion to do it myself but here's the thing.  I can remember a few things which weren't so fab.  When I was about 14, around 1976, a couple of occasions at school.  A pal of mine gave a bit of a smart alecky answer, the older teached walked straight up to him, grabbed his hair at the back of the head and proceeded to bang it about 5 times on the desk.  Shocked but not much of an eyelid battered.  Should have.  Another, round about the same time and similar circumstances, different teacher, different pupil.  A rather quiet and unassuming teacher grabbed the pupil by the shoulders, yanked him out of his chair and completely beat the living shit out of him.  We were petrified.  He actually broke a couple of his ribs.  I remember his dad coming into the school but nothing was done.  Things carried on as normal.  Good old days eh?