The Elementary School (Czech: Obecná škola) is a 1991 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film directed by Jan Svěrák.

Shortly after World War II, in 1945–46, in one of the suburbs of Prague (the film was shot in Michle), Eda Souček attends a boys' elementary school where he belongs to a class with a complete lack of discipline.

He immediately introduces corporal punishment, which, as he claims, is not normally allowed, but the school has received an exception from the Ministry of Education, especially for their class.

Whenever he is not satisfied with the boys' behavior, Hnízdo asks them to flex their arms and hits their palms several times with a flexible switch.

Hnízdo's reputation suffers after he is accused of having a sexual relationship with 16-year-old twins who attend a girls' school in the same area.

He states that the way they dealt with the accusation is proof that their relationship is now based on mutual trust and physical punishments are no longer required, and he breaks his switch in half.