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Susan Boyle: I was beaten by teachers at school
Updated 08:51am on 17 Nov 2009Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle today revealed she was bullied at school and beaten by teachers who were ignorant about children with learning disabilities.
Bullied: Susan Boyle had a tough childhood
The Scottish singer said she was hit with a belt every day by teachers and taunted by classmates.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror in her first interview since finishing her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, Boyle, 48, said: "You're looking at someone who would get the belt every day. 'Will you Shut up, Susan!' - whack!"
She continued: "I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner.
"I'm just I'm a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know?
"That was what I felt was happening to me."
She added: "There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it's all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better."
Referring to her experiences of being bullied at school, she said: "There's nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing."
Boyle also described how she used her faith to cope with the death of her mother Bridget in 2007.
She said: "After mum died it didn't fully register until maybe six months after. That's when the loneliness set in and there was nobody around except my cat Pebbles. When you lose someone as powerful as your mum you feel as if a part of you is taken away and that does things to your confidence.
"My confidence was pretty down at that time. A good way of levelling it out, I found, was to tell myself that even though she's not here physically, mentally and spiritually she is.
"That's what keeps you going. I have my faith, which is the backbone of who I am, really."
The church worker from Blackburn, West Lothian, became an unlikely international superstar after her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream wowed the audience and judges on Britain's Got Talent earlier this year.
Shortly after being beaten in the final of the show by dance troupe Diversity Boyle was taken to the Priory Clinic in central London suffering from exhaustion.
But the singer, whose fans include actress Demi Moore and her heroine, singer Elaine Page, has bounced back, with her new album, released next week, already expected to be the most pre-ordered of all time - global sales are thought to be in excess of 100,000.
Reader views (6)
It makes me angry that Susan and others had to put up with sadistic teachers! I was fortunate to be put in a school for kids with learning disabilities and didn't have to deal with these things. To be honest, if i had been Susan, being whipped with a belt, I probably would have lashed back and kick and bite!!
- Lara, Mountain View, AR USA, 17/11/2009 22:24
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yes, that was the past. Its about how you deal with it today. Take a stance, be yourself, let the pain go. There is no need to struggle. When you reach maturity, you can make the decisions, so let the past go, and move on with new found strength, you certainly seem to be doing that Susan, and good luck to you too!
- London Lady, london, 17/11/2009 20:23
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Indeed most of us around Susan's age suffered at the hands of sadist teachers . I think teachers today have a more difficult job because they are not allowed to smack at all . We had one teacher who was a alcho and boy did he take it out on us . But well done Susan , You have risen above the sadists and are in a class of your own now . Unlike most x factor contestants . You can sing . You did a great job on the Stones Wild Horses . I loved it . You have brought something back to music and proved You don't have to be a Miss Pretty to make it . There are far too many so called beautiful people in the business who can't sing a note . I remember Simon Cowells face when You walked on . He was ready to dismiss You . Then the first words You sang , The expression on His face , boy did he raise His eyebrows ! Well done Susan , long may You reign .
- Brian, london, 17/11/2009 12:28
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Anyone in their mid 40s and above would have had this treatment at school, self included. You weren't singled out, Susan, so get over it!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 17/11/2009 12:28
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I remember back in 1949 (I was 9) my whole class being caned for not knowing something we had never been taught. That was the sadistic Irish education we endured. Unbelievable.
- Sandy, Ealing, London, 17/11/2009 10:58
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It was common place to beat and box ears in the forties and fifties.
Indeed any water on the toilet floor was in in its self a canning offence.
I was caned for just standing up whilst the teacher had left the room fpr a short while.
Most of us are still here, but it certainly was a deterent to toe the line.
- Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD, 17/11/2009 10:16
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