I grew up in Mansfield in the sixties, and as the sixties drew to a close my secondary education was beginning, recalled Mick Sutton.

Being a right little clever dick I passed my 11 plus, and was sent, amidst much wailing and gnashing of teeth, to Brunts Grammar School, away from all my friends who went from our junior school, St Philip's to the adjoining secondary modern, St. Bede's.

Brunts was my introduction to the sadism and reactionary fascism inherent in the education system of the time.

I remember watching the TV program 'All our yesterdays', which at that time was dealing with the mid stages of the second world war, little realising that Hitler's henchmen, Goering, Himmler, etc, had escaped justice at Nuremburg and were happily ensconced as teachers in my town!!!

It did not take long for me to find this out! Within the first term there I had been exposed to the very worst attitudes in British society, snobbery and condescension were rife, as was brutality towards pupils from the 'masters', a cunning abbreviation of master race.

Why these men came into teaching I cannot imagine, unless it was to slake their perverted thirst for public punishment of minors, and the ritual humiliation of those working-class kids that had the temerity to aspire to an education.

The headmaster, who imagined himself to be a patrician figure, was, on reflection little more than a shabby pedantic sadist, in charge of a group of teachers that would put the dirty dozen to shame in their attitudes on violence towards smaller, weaker people.

I could go on, but no one would believe me, suffice it to say that being expelled from that hell-hole was the happiest day in my 44 year life so far. And to any of the teachers from that time who are still alive, I'm not sure how you live with yourselves, for I know I couldn't.

Mick Sutton, Northampton, 2001