Lines at a school typically refers to a form of punishment either meted out by schoolmasters or prefects at an establishment such as a British public school.

Sometimes the text is made up and specified in advance by the person who sent the child for this punishment, or there may be a standard "school line" which the child is to use.

For example, at The Leys School in the UK, in the 1980s the standard school line was supposed to be written over and over again on a blank sheet of A4 paper at least 30 times within the space of half an hour early in the morning before school began. The line to repeat over and over was "How displeasing it is to a well regulated mind to see a boy, who ought to know better, disporting himself at improper moments".

Other times the line may differ depending on the offence which brought about the punishment. A typical set of lines will begin "I must not", followed by something such as "run in the halls" or "chew gum during lessons".

Typically the punishment will involve the child giving up some free time to be supervised in a classroom writing the relevant "line" over and over again. The real suitability of lines as a punishment stems from the fact that they are monotonous, time-consuming, ultimately pointless, and yet extremely hard to "shortcut" and complete without expending the necessary effort. A common tactic is to write each individual word on every line as opposed to writing the entire sentence, but opinions differ on which method of writing is better for completing the punishment.

School Punishments