twelve inches too short

I went to a posh school with a strict uniform code (and yes, I had letters home about the liberties I took with it, silly little goth that I was). The skirt was designed to sit a couple of inches below the knee - which anyone will tell you is the most unflattering length, particularly if the skirt itself is square and shapeless. We all, inevitably, rolled the skirt up at the waistband or got our mums to hem it in an attempt to look less like we were wearing oversized sacks. Even I, who was always a loner at school, succumbed to peer pressure and shortened my skirt.

I love the idea of a rule penalising the number of inches a skirt is too short with that number of strokes. I'm not sure where I first encountered the idea. Certainly my school was nowhere near this strict - as long as not too much leg was showing we all got away with shortening our skirts to some extent. And even if a teacher did note our non-regulation dress, detention or letters home were the worst you could expect. But the image is a hot one. Teachers stalking the corridors, wooden rulers in hand, measuring the distance between skirt hem and knee. Six inches too short? Six strokes: with the same wooden ruler, of course.



I've posted a couple of pics from this photoset before, but I've just found a free hosted gallery containing several more. I promise you I never wore anything this short at school! (Although I have seen teenagers on the bus who have made me wonder.) Twelve inches shorter than regulation length ... that's twelve strokes, sharply delivered, first over knickers and then on the bare. I sulked and protested, but Mr Lewis was implacable.



Given the look on his face while I'm doing some well-deserved corner time, however, you have to wonder how much he really objected to the length of my skirt.