Navy Blue Pinafore

Do you remember you days in primary school?I mean not the recess part where you chased after grasshopper, but the classroom part.

The things I remember the most are punishments.
I wrote lines.
In my 5th year, for the first and last time, I flashed middle finger to a fellow kid when we were on the field. I swear it was provoked and I didn't do that anymore, after I was put to stand in front of the principal's office for that.
Talking excessively is something that I am still doing at this age of mine. Back in those days, girls and boys alike talked like there's no tomorrow and during my time, as kids, boys and girls had mutual dislike generally. So to shut those tiny mouths, teachers mostly will arrange for boys and girls to sit alternately. That did the job. But, I don't think such method is doable nowadays with the kids being so advanced.
If you have never been punished by ketuk ketampi, tell me. I'll buy you Maggi, curry flavour for your extraordinary achievement. That's the most ancient form of punishment in primary school in Malaysia. It's practised even in high school, albeit high school's ones is upgraded to a new level where it's done in congregation and at the end of it, your knees are all wobbly and going down the stairs is a feat.
If you notice it, most of the punishment methods share a common ground ~ they make you practise balancing (physically, not metaphorically)
Say, has u ever seen any student standing with both arms hanging against gravity perpendicularly to your body and one leg raised at 90 degrees angle?I did that. On a chair. In front of he whole class. On top of that, I had the nerve to jump from that position and gave a punch to the boy who was mocking me. Let's call that even. When I had my BCG shot, he purposely, for fun punched the girls' arms. BCG shot is a big thing dude!
And the fun bit is that when the teacher teaching at the front has something against you (like you dare sleep or talk when he's awake and standing and teaching), he either throw the duster or the chalk towards you. Man, I never see that anymore after primary school and when a lecturer aimed the chalk at some guys in a lab, it brought back memories.

Mistakes were made and most importantly it got corrected. As long as your mistakes only measure up to those punishments above, you can still sit by the longkang with you classmates, the dentist nurse holding humungous dental arch and toothbrush and eeking over the product that all of you spat into the drain after you brushed your teeth.