# Teaching nuns -- all ogresses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537 "2019-07-24T10:23:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/61 "2019-07-28T12:59:46Z")
This nun/sister dichotomy sounds like the pedantic stuff like you hear when someone gets on you for calling strawberries a …, well, “berry”. It’s a “aggregate accessory fruit”. C’mon. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/62 "2019-07-28T15:20:28Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Do they even _have_ nuns in Vietnam nowadays? Or was your guy, of an age to have been at school pre-1975? (I’m not being snarky – just interested.) This was back about 1985 so “refugee” might have been a better descriptor than “immigrant.” In any event, I’d say his schooling was well before the fall. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_Vietnam) says the Catholic church is still active in Vietnam, although not always with smooth relations with the current regime. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/63 "2019-07-28T17:56:00Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > As a result of this thread, I’ve done a lot of looking. And the consensus seems to be that "nun ’ refers to those who take solemn vows and live a contemplative life in a cloistered community while “sisters” take simple vows and live an “apostolic” or “active” life. It doesn’t necessarily go by order- as this [order](http://salesianspirituality.com/visitation-sisters-of-holy-mary-first-second-federation/) includes both active and contemplative communities. > > But I have to point out that 1) It’s somewhat technical distinction - most people refer to them all as “nuns” and 2) even that technical distinction may not be made in languages other than English. Or even in every dialect of English, or in every Order. In general, “nun” would never be used as a form of address: depending on the order, you address a nun called Mary Joseph as “Sister Mary Joseph” no matter what job/rank she holds, as “Mother Mary Joseph” no matter what job/rank she holds, or as “Mother Mary Joseph” if she’s the Mother Superior and “Sister Mary Joseph” otherwise. You’d never say “good morning, Nun Mary Joseph”. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/64 "2019-07-28T19:56:19Z")
I went to a parochial school in the Sixties taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph. One nun I had was truly cruel–I think of her as the Twisted Sister. But all the nuns, mean or not, were very strict, in large part because the classes were so large: 40 or 45 kids, one nun, no aides. (In some schools, classes were even larger–60 or more.) Many teachers, nuns or lay, resorted to physical punishment. Worse, in my book, was the combo of religion, fear, and guilt used to keep us in line. Most Catholic school kids of that era heard plenty of holy horror stories like the one about the girl who chewed the Communion Host (a no-no then), and it spurted blood. Kids who went to Catholic schools later on don’t have horror stories because class sizes shrank post-Boomers. Older nuns retired. More and younger lay teachers had to be hired. My town was near Chicago and many residents were first- or second-generation Americans. Mayne that was a factor, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/65 "2019-07-29T09:18:21Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > This was back about 1985 so “refugee” might have been a better descriptor than “immigrant.” In any event, I’d say his schooling was well before the fall. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_Vietnam) says the Catholic church is still active in Vietnam, although not always with smooth relations with the current regime. Thanks for info. One tends to think, rule-of-thumb, “Communist revolution = religious types will be in bad bother”; but things are apt to change over time. > [@nelliebly](#): > > I went to a parochial school in the Sixties taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph. One nun I had was truly cruel–I think of her as the Twisted Sister. But all the nuns, mean or not, were very strict, in large part because the classes were so large: 40 or 45 kids, one nun, no aides. (In some schools, classes were even larger–60 or more.) Many teachers, nuns or lay, resorted to physical punishment. Worse, in my book, was the combo of religion, fear, and guilt used to keep us in line. Most Catholic school kids of that era heard plenty of holy horror stories like the one about the girl who chewed the Communion Host (a no-no then), and it spurted blood. > > Kids who went to Catholic schools later on don’t have horror stories because class sizes shrank post-Boomers. Older nuns retired. More and younger lay teachers had to be hired. My town was near Chicago and many residents were first- or second-generation Americans. Mayne that was a factor, too. When one thinks on it: I suppose, conditions half a century and more ago were often such that teachers – religious, lay, secular – had to take what appears by current standards, to be a pretty strict and harsh line. I – lifelong Brit (citizen and resident), aged 70 – experienced a basically gentle teaching scene throughout my schooldays, ages 5 to 17. (Started at a Church of England primary school; but the teachers – all lay-persons – were extremely sweet ladies.) Likely connection here, I feel, with my coming from a relatively privileged background. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/66 "2019-07-29T18:06:20Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Off-topic, and you probably get this asked a million times, but has kayla been the unwilling subject of your dad humor all these years? I must confess that I didn’t begin taking my job (of embarrassing her to distraction) seriously until she became a teenager; when I finally started, she was already so jaded by Grandpa humor that dad humor barely left a mark. So, yeah, I’ve been doing the dad humor thing for about ten years; OTOH, she hasn’t been “unwilling” so much as “resigned to it”… ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/67 "2019-07-30T02:54:04Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Sisters of Charity. They’re just _called_ Grey Nuns, because, well they’re Nuns aren’t they? I don’t know anything about Sisters of Charity. This particular order wasn’t just called Grey Nuns, they were the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. [https://www.greynun.org/](https://www.greynun.org/) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/68 "2019-07-30T10:30:10Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > I don’t know anything about Sisters of Charity. This particular order wasn’t just called Grey Nuns, they were the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. > > [https://www.greynun.org/](https://www.greynun.org/) The other Grey Nun congreagations > **[Other Grey Nun Congregations - Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart](https://www.greynun.org/who-we-are/other-grey-nun-congregations/)** > > Sisters of Charity of Montreal (SGM) Original foundation of St. Marguerite d’Youville, founded in 1737 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Today... ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/69 "2019-07-31T06:36:32Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Catholic School, K through 8th Grade, 1956-1964. San Diego. > > Normal civilian human female teachers for K, 3rd (kindly grandmother types), and 5th grades (younger woman), All three of whom obviously loved teaching and children. Happy times for us kids. > > School Sisters Of Notre Dame (Penguins) for the other grades. > > Grade 1: Middle-aged Monster, who terrified us. A few years after my time with her, she broke a six year old female student’s nose. Several weeks later she did it again to the same girl. I am not making this up. > Grade 2: Middle aged Monster, who struck kids on the top of their heads, using door keys as brass knuckles, or hard objects that “gave” in such a way as to inflict serious pain without leaving marks. > Grade 4: Younger, who I remember as being good natured and kindly. > Grade 6: Elderly, who seemed to enjoy teaching but once sucker-slapped me HARD on the face for the crime of having spoken to another kid while she’d been out of the room. > Grade 7: Middle Aged Monster who should never have been left alone with children. The psychological abuse she inflicted on us was horrific, and VERY long lasting. > Grade 8: Different woman but same as Grade 7. > > Approaching 70 and it still upsets me to write this. Maybe it was the SSND nuns who were particularly vile - mine were SSND as well. In fact at first I wondered if you and I went to the same school, but I am an East Coast girl. What is really horrifying in retrospect is that these “teachers” never faced any consequences for their action. Your first grade teacher should frankly have been charged with criminal assault - but the teachers saw nothing wrong in their behavior, and the parents didn’t stand up for their children. I was chatting with my older brother this weekend - and I mentioned that my first grade classroom had 50 kids in it (with Sister Reptile). He said that in his year (6 years earlier) there were **90** in that classroom. a) I can’t figure out how they _fit_, and b) If you’re teaching a class that large, I guess the only thing you can think of is to terrorize them into puddles of goo to keep control. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/70 "2019-07-31T13:48:09Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > (snip) > …Worse, in my book, was the combo of religion, fear, and guilt used to keep us in line. Most Catholic school kids of that era heard plenty of holy horror stories like the one about the girl who chewed the Communion Host (a no-no then), and it spurted blood. > > (snip) My mother went to a parochial middle school in the Sixties. One of the sisters told her that every sin she committed drove the nails a little deeper into Jesus’ hands. That’s clever, in a really sick, twisted way. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537/71 "2019-07-31T18:39:05Z")
While, despite everything, I see some positive aspects to Catholicism – both “ancient and modern” – the more I read in this thread; the more thankful I feel, that I was not born into that particular variant of Christianity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teaching-nuns-all-ogresses/837537.md?page=3)