WARNING: This may be a slightly pointless lecture
In Victorian Britain, in schools, if a child had got a perfectly easy question wrong they would wear a cone-like hat with a D on it (D for Dunce)
They would sometimes sit on a highstool in a corner with the hat on.
Here is a pointless script of an example:
[The teacher... erm... Miss Grey, strolls through the jam-packed class room]
Miss Grey: [glares at Bobby Tumbleweed] 7 x 12? (The 12's were important because there were 12 pence in a shilling)
Bobby Tumbleweed: Erm.. 42?
Miss Grey: [glares at foolish boy]
Bobby Tumbleweed: Erm... I m-m-mean 96!
Miss Grey: [grits teeth and grabs cane... for whipping
, sort of)
Bobby Tumbleweed: I-I a-atually m-m-mean s-s-ev-v-vent-ty n-nin-ne...
Miss Grey: THE ANSWER IS 84! [points at coned hat with D on it on desk]
Bobby Tumbleweed:
[glumly picks up hat, puts it on head and sits on tall stool in corner of classroom]
Miss Grey: *cough*nitwit*cough*
Bobby Tumbleweed:
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And that my friends... was the end of that *walks away, feeling fullfilled*
they need fixin
