School Life

Esther Annenberg: Dinner time


Esther, known as Etty, was born in 1909 in Upton Park in London. Etty went to Venetian Road Special School in Camberwell, London from the age of five, going on to an apprenticeship in dressmaking at Holdren's department store in Peckham. At the time of interview Etty was 104 years old.

Here Etty describes her reaction to being forced to eat food she didn’t want.

Transcript

If she could punish you in any way, she would. Especially dinner time, she’d give you a dinner you didn’t like and she would force you to eat it.
No-one forces me to eat food I don’t want.
I spat it all over her. Oh yeah.

Explore more

Explore stories by theme or view the timeline of significant events in education for disabled people

A selection of other stories...