School Punishment

[Siobhan57]

I attended a Roman Catholic secondary school in the north coast area of Northern Ireland in the late 1970's where corporal punishment was used on a daily basis. The strap was the most used form of punishment, always on the hands in public and could be administered by the Headmaster and a few select senior teachers. I witnessed strappings on a daily basis, mainly in assembly and occasionally for more serious offences pupils, both male and female, were caned hard on the hands.
I was never a trouble maker at school, nor were my group of friends. However 2 specific instances stick in my mind. On one occasion my best friend at school, who had never been in trouble before, foolishly was spotted by a teacher spitting out chewing gum in the playground. A double whammy as chewing gum was banned and spitting it out was a definite no no. She was marched straight to the headmaster's office and returned to our class after lunch with tears in her eyes. As she sat beside me, she showed me her hands which were quite severely marked with the effects of the strap. She later told me the headmaster was furious, told her off and told her she was to receive 3 hard strokes with the strap on each hand, which she took with great difficulty almost in tears. I think the headmaster and other teachers were even more strict with us well behaved pupils as a warning to never reoffend. My friend never took the risk again if even chewing gum let alone spit it out.
I personally received only 1 punishment in my 5th year close to exam time. I foolishly took an afternoon off as it was Sports Day, thinking I wouldn't be caught. A teacher however spotted me and 2 others, reported us to the headmaster who in assembly the next morning read our names out and told us to report to his office immediately after assembly. We were waiting outside his office and he ordered us into his office in a no nonsense tone. We knew we were in big trouble as he regarded our absence as a form of truancy which was one of his pet hates. He told us we were going to get caned on our hands, 2 on each hand. I was first and the pain of the cane was almost unbearable and despite only 2 strokes on each hand, my hands were stinging and I was close to tears. I then had to watch my 2 friends get exactly the same. Afterwards I went to the toilets and ran my hands under the cold tap to try to dull the pain. Needless to say it was only temporary relief as the pain lasted all day. That was my first and last experience of corporal punishment.

[Bubbles66]

I remember having to stand near the teachers desk to then be told to lower my socks, then I was smacked on my legs with a ruler. This was due to a friend asking me if I could lend her something from my pencil case, all I did was throw it to her gently.

[Bubbles66]

Once I had forgotten to bring to school some homework. I was told to write out 100 times ''I must not forget my homework again''. Strangely enough I enjoyed doing that.

[HG]

I only got them once after myself and some others put drawing pins on chairs in the classroom. I must not put tin tacks on chairs X 100

[Bubbles66]

Ooo, naughty that was. I remember standing on a tin tack once at home, that was bad enough.

[Bubbles66]

I can remember all the class being made to stand in a circle at the middle of the classroom. The tables and chairs were moved out of the way. The teacher stood in the middle and randomly pointed to one of us to answer the times table she called out. I always dreaded being asked the 7's or the 9's, all the others I was okay with.

[Moonraker]

Re: School Punishment

Hi Kaz

Well, I was at secondary school between 1974 and 1979. I think the cane was withdrawn during this time. When I started at the school, I remember there was a rumour going round amongst the kids that you could 'refuse' the cane and get suspended for a few days instead, and that many children just agreed to being struck so they could then keep it from their parents. The girls only got the slipper, not the cane.

At Junior school, we had a very fierce head master, and once again, I believe he kept a cane but rarely used it. The deputy head used to occasionally whack a child's backside though.

The idea of a teacher using a ruler to strike the palm of an eight year old, seems astonishing now doesn't it?

Certainly the cane was around when I started secondary school in 1977. I was a good kid so never got punished. But one time I forgot to bring my swimming trunks; on a day when the deputy head decided to cane anyone who left their gear at home.
There were about 7 of us waiting outside this red door. We were in a queue. The deputy head said 'come in,' and the first kid went in. I heard one whip and a cry. I was near the end of the queue... and it was getting shorter. Boy it hurt.

[Juliatoo]

My Gran was a deputy headmistress until 1976 when she retired. She used to give badly behaved kids the slipper. Fortunately I didn't go to the school she worked at!

I got a whack across the back of the legs from my class teacher with a ruler at junior school - I was in tears as soon as I knew I was getting it and hated that teacher even more.

My brother got the cane at junior school. Mum was furious with him when she found out and he was lucky not to get her slipper too.

Hard to believe now

Julia

[George 1978]

No wonder we hear about former headteachers and strict teachers, usally PE or some other disciplined subject, bringing out "Sammy the Slipper", or "Michael" (as in Michael Cane [sic], geddit?) as a sanction, and are now in their 70s or 80s, and are getting their comeuppance at long last, being brought to justice in the courts many decades after their "punishment" on youngsters all those years ago. Thankfully it never happened to me, but I bet that up to the 1970s (and even 1980s in private schools) that it continued behind closed doors, and at the time, one assumes that it was the "normal" thing to do back then; to chastise youngsters if they had done something wrong. board rubbers, rulers, chalk, etc, have been used as weapons, not by kids, but by teachers.

I am glad that we have had reform in the way schools have been run even since he days when I was in the system myself; writing out the same sentence 100 times may give kids the odd-arm ache, but it isn't quite as cruel as the old "six of the best" foray, in which we reached the latter half of the 20th century in schools while principal methods send the system back into Victorian times.

Rumour had it that my Junior School headteacher had a cane in his office which was inherited from his many predecessors dating back to the 1930s at least, but when I happened to be in front of him for some strange reason (I don't even know why I was there myself to be honest), I found out that this was not true, thank goodness. We didn't have a punishment book either - well, I never saw any existence of it anyway.

[HampshirePete]

I went to school in the 1950’s and 1960’s. At infants school it was a smacked bottom. At primary school it was the ruler, slipper or cane. Got the cane twice there, one stroke on each hand. Both times from deputy headmistress and boy did it hurt.
At grammar school it was even more strict. All teachers could use the cane and most did. The lady teachers were more likely to use it though. I got six cuts in my second week from a lady teacher for rudeness. Then it was generally once or twice a year. It was generally warranted. School rarely used detentions and lines were for minor things like talking in class. Only visited headmaster once though. Got six cuts for playing truant.
Didn’t tell my parents either. They would not have objected and I might have got punished by them as well.

[Justin124]

I attended a very strict Boys' Grammar School in West Wales 1965 - 73. There was no Detention system at all , but a general reliance on corporal punishment - though its use was restricted to the Headmaster and his Deputy when the former was absent. He was the last Headmaster of the school 1958 - 78 when a Comprehensive School replaced it. A very explosive character who was hot tempered and impatient - effectively he was temperamentally unstable in that he would lose control of himself when angry.
Nearly 4 years before my own arrival , there was an episode at the school at the beginning of 1962 when the Head punished a boy so severely that his legs were bleeding. His parents took the matter to the national press and eventually did receive an apology. I have no idea as to why they failed to involve the Police by pressing charges because had it gone to Court there would probably have been a high probability of the Head being convicted under the terms of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 - which would have cost him his job. What happened to that boy was not 'punishment' but 'physical abuse.' Whilst corporal punishment remained lawful in state schools until Summer 1987, physical abuse was never authorised. Beating boys to the point where they were made to bleed or remained seriously bruised for weeks clearly crossed the threshold from 'punishment' to 'physical abuse' . The boy concerned - and there were other examples - could have revisited the issue years later and denounced him in public as a 'physical child abuser.' In truth , most pupils -and parents - will have had limited knowledge of the law - and that probably spared the Headmaster's career. Whilst he passed away 20 years ago - and is, therefore, beyond human justice - his victims could still seek redress by suing the LEA on the basis of vicarious liability - in that the Local Education Authority had employed him. An award of damages might still be forthcoming.

[George 1978]

Was detention a relatively new thing as a non-violent replacement for corporal punishment in around the 1970s or 1980s, I wonder? I hear about those who went to school in the 1950s and 1960s and before just like Pete and Justin above (especially reading the memories during my stint as a Friends Reunited member in the early 2000s), and some of the older "veterans" who were in the system in those decades mention getting the strap or the cane from the Head in their day but not mentioning the word "detention" happening to them back then. One assumes that the physical punishment is obviously more memorable than the having to copy lines out if they both happened. And Grange Hill had it as late as 1981.

We already had children's charities like the NSPCC back then (founded in 1884), but the problem was back in the day, even they probably didn't know what was happening in schools during the mid 20th century. Any conservative-minded person (with a small C) in the 1950s or 1960s who heard of someone getting "six of the best" for wrongdoing and misdemeanors would probably say "they deserved it for what they did". Thankfully, we have a more transparent system in place, and teachers who abuse the system (and not only their pupils) are more likely to not only get struck off but are put out of circulation for a "little" while, and many would swap a classroom for a prison cell.

[Justin124]

I did get the impression tha Detention as a punishment was pretty well established by the 1960s. I did live in a fairly small town in Pembrokeshire with many pupils attending from surrounding villages etc and who relied on school buses for transport. Possibly such a consideration made it problematic to operate such a system - though it was not seriously discussed.

[beccabear67]

I never understood the idea of suspensions, especially not for skiving off; for most kids being made to spend more time in school would be punishment, thus detention makes sense. I had to take summer classes for maths one year and I worked harder at it from then on so I wouldn't have to go to school in the summer time again... however few hours it might have been it was stretched out over two weeks.

Did I mention yet a WWII vet teacher we had? He said he swam the English channel at least once, but not all in one swim; he'd lost his planes over water and had to swim back more than once! I saw him smack boys' hands with a long flat ruler and throw chalk brushes to get kids' attentions. This was around age nine to ten for me.

[Justin124]

Many have commented here on having been at the receiving end of chalk and/or board rubbers in the classroom. The only physical punishment I received occurred in May 1968 when - not quite 14 - I was hit very firmly over the head in a History lesson by the stand-in master - a Canon - with the Library book I was reading despite having been directed to read a particular textbook. There was actually very little chalk or board throwing at my school - I recall only one master who was inclined to do that.It was though common practice across the UK. However, what very few people are aware of is that such actions were always unlawful - in that throwing chalk or board rubbers at pupils or hitting them over the head with books was not authorised corporal punishment. It would not have amounted to 'physical abuse' but would have fallen under the heading of 'common assault.' Had I but known it, having been hit over the head by the Canon in May 1968, I could have walked into a Police Station and reported him and thereby made a formal complaint!