ABSTRACT
How much has changed in teaching and induction into teaching in the last half decade? ‘Delivery’ remains the predominant metaphor for the teaching and learning process. The major change, reflecting wider social and cultural mores, is the removal of sanctions and in particular corporal punishment, a shameful and long-standing tradition in Scottish educational history. The story of teaching in one of Scotland’s most prestigious ‘grammar’ schools, saved from closure by Mrs Thatcher, and in a French junior secondary school, offers a lens on the nature and abuses of authority, the refocusing brought by escapes from the classroom, and the comedic and tragic in school life.
