You know I went to a Catholic school from 4th thru 7th grade. Were the nuns intimidating? Yes!!! Was the school strict? Yes! As a matter of fact, I did more poorly at Catholic school then I did at public school, which might be considered a plus as far as education goes for the Catholic school.

However, as strict as the nuns were, I never recall anybody being mistreated or manhandled or hit with a ruler, etc. Maybe I am in the minority. I don't know. I hear many stories from others like TB shared.

My school (and parish) was an Italian Parish with the Priest and nuns (I forgot which order the nuns were?? Consolota..they wore gray habits) right from the old country...they all spoke very broken English. Of course, so did my grandmothers (who really didn't speak English), so I guess I was kind of use to it.

On thing that makes me look back and chuckle is when Sister Celestia would get frustrated because we were all talking and horsing around, she would grab a stack of books on her desk, keeping them in a pile and then holding them, slammed them on the desk 3 or four times, saying in broken English..."mah....Is eeeet posseeble?" Ha ha..she'd get so frustrated. But, we did listen. She never had to do that twice in a day if I recall.

Oh, and when our Priest, Father Davanzo, walked in the room, we stood and as a group said, "Good Morning Father". He was kind of a scary Priest and had a sharp tone.

TIS