[Symbiote]

I think 90% of the blame lies with the British public school system, 10% with a very low quality pen, or maybe manufacture was worse a few decades ago.

Caning ended at least a decade before I was at school in England. The teacher when we were 7 or so showed us how to write nicely with the fountain pen. Boys flicking ink happened very rarely. I don't remember any intentional damage.

(Foreigners: "public school" in Britain means those extremely expensive schools that look like Hogwarts but have teachers more deranged than Snape and children more malicious than Malfoy. I'm amused by the anecdote about the textbook, as that's a plot point in Harry Potter.)

[hnbear]

“ teachers more deranged than Snape and children more malicious than Malfoy”

Depressingly accurate and funny