Not in elementary school or later, but in preschool it happened to me a few times.In my state, preschool is for ages 3 to 5; mine even accepted some 2-year-olds.It was, like many others, run by nuns.I remember that a few times I had my rectal temperature taken because I wasn't feeling well. I was taken to a small room that served as an infirmary, and, lying face down on the bed, my clothes were taken down and my temperature was taken.When I was 5, I remember it was summer, and I had heat stroke; I felt sick. And they took my temperature like that for the last time.I felt no shame; they often saw us undressed and took the little ones to the bathroom, and it wasn't annoying at all, but some, especially the girls, cried.
I cannot honestly ever remember having my temperature taken at school at all. Physicals and such were done at the doctor's office, and I don't remember every having to go to the nurse due to illness, but, given the times, it probably would have been done that way (I graduated 8th grade in 1976, so it seems likely, at least in the earlier grades.) It was a private parochial school, and the nurse was not full time, and a volunteer at that (She was one of the parents who would come in)
I grew up in a boarding school, and one of my strongest memories from that time is tied to the school nurse.Whenever one of us didn't feel well, the procedure was always the same: the nurse would always take our temperature rectally.What made it even more complicated was the fact that there was almost no privacy. The other girls in the room or the clinic at the time could see everything. There was only a thin curtain that wasn't always fully closed, and it was clear to everyone exactly what was happening behind it.The embarrassment was overwhelming—that feeling of being completely exposed while the nurse performed the exam, knowing the other girls were following every movement or sound.This situation, where the lines between medical care and public exposure were blurred, is deeply etched in my memory. Today, I realize how much those moments behind that partially open curtain shaped the way I perceive this whole subject.
Did they take your temperature rectally at school?I can't imagine that's how it was done in Germany. If a child got sick at school, the parents were asked to pick them up.
@Sanne You’re right that in a regular day school in Germany, parents are just called to pick up their child. But boarding school life is a completely different story.When you live where you study, you don’t go home every day. The school becomes the authority. Medical treatments and even punishments are handled right there, on-site, often without a single report ever reaching the parents. It creates a very isolated, intense environment where things are done "by the book," and clinical procedures are just part of the daily discipline.
In preschool classes, yes, I remember that temperatures were taken rectally. I don't remember if it was done on mysemf, but I remember seeing some other children having their temperatures taken in the bottom, when they were lying over knees of a teacher's assistant.