I RESISTED the temptation to watch Channel 4's Cutting Edge: Mind Your F-ing Language programme about schoolchildren's language last Monday.

The subject material brought to mind an incident from when I was 12 in the 1940s when my cousin and I were in the same holiday accommodation as a genteel, retired headmistress.

She must have inquired about our enjoyment of school because I remember lamenting the cruelty of one of our teachers. She responded by telling us about a day in her childhood when a teacher had lost patience with his class of girls and called them some terrible names.

He had told them they were Peterwaggies and Gems of the Ocean, and she shared this incident with us with some hesitancy, and fluttering of hands. She noted the astonishment of my cousin and myself at this story.

Suffice to say, my cousin and I had experienced being in Roker Park football ground, in Sunderland, and heard the crowd shouting their disapproval of the referee and some players by loudly questioning the parentage of those unfortunates on the field. So we were not too shocked at her story.

But it gives readers a glimpse of how far standards of behaviour have decayed since Victorian times.

Alan Thompson, Darlington.