Did the punishment fit the crime?
Watch this postI do some voluntary work at a local primary school listening to the children read.
On a recent visit, the headmistress showed me a Punishment Book dating back to 1902.
The book had been supplied by EJ Arnold & Son for the princely sum of one shilling and sixpence. In the preface to the book, there are some instructions for the teachers about discipline and they make interesting reading! “The most effective agent for maintaining good discipline is the teacher’s own example. Children readily recognize that their teachers are anxious to help them, patient but determined to be obeyed. They notice also such details in their conduct as punctuality, order, neatness, gentle speech and imitate what they see and hear. They observe little defects of conduct more keenly still, and with disastrous effect.” The book records the child’s name, their misdemeanour and their punishment. In 1902 it appears that it was okay for girls to be caned as well as the boys and this did not change until well after WW2. In 1907 two young girls, Elsie and May, were given one stroke of the cane on their hands for talking and copying each other’s work. The punishment did not seem to deter some children as the same names crop up with alarming regularity. Two entries on consecutive days record that one boy was caned twice for fighting and the following day four times for leaving school without permission and being impudent. Being sulky was also a punishable offence! Sometimes the children had to write their own names and reason for punishment in the book. In 1937 one boy wrote that he was being punished for hitting a girl. He wrote, “I hit her as she was passing by me and my hand caught her clothes and they lifted up”. It is amusing to note the excuse of “he fell on my hand” for children caught fighting occurs quite frequently through the years.
Do you remember being punished at school? I still remember being hit on the head with the long window pole, used for opening the high windows in class, because I was looking out of the window at the snow and also having to balance on a bench whilst writing 50 lines for some minor misdemeanour!
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We don't tolerate swearing, and reserve the right to remove any posts which we feel may offend others... let's keep it friendly!
Now, as yoou say, & it's for loads of reasons & a lot to do with rubbish parenting, too many children have little discipline, little respect for their teachers & are more than happy to disrupt lessons, to the detriment of their fellow pupils.
But you can't bring corporal punishment back - it would be abhorrent to almost all of today's techers to administer it. Wish I knew the answer.
But i also worked a s teacher for 20 years before retirement, and justice at many schools stinks. At the school I worked a longest, you got an automatic detention for talking in the corridor (like excitedly discussing the lesson you'd just had), but, despite my advocating and advocating it, not for being in the cloakrooms without permission (thieve's charter).
After i retired , i volunteered at a school where the headmasterwas a friend, up until lockdown. The difference - the peace. He is not a tyrant, he insists on consistency, and has re-layed out the school to reduce (you can never remove - there's always the loos) opportunities for unseen mis-behaviour.
It can be done, but it so often isn't - and unfairness in childhood can stick with you forever, which is why it's so important for schools to be fair.
You have my sympathy.
When you was on tiptoe.... he just kept pulling.
( Note: Only the boys got this treatment)
Other than that.... PE teacher had a very flexible old style ‘Pe shoes).
The cane was also still in use then...I was a good(ish) boy though.
At secondary school: Chemistry teacher use to throw things at me - they got bigger as the term went on - bit of chalk- bigger bits of chalk - blackboard rubber - finally she threw a Bunsen burner at me which caused me to duck down and it hit the wall taking out a large hole and plaster everywhere. My crime was not looking interested!
I remember the teacher used to keep the belt under is jacket over his shoulder to keep it warm! Meant to hurt more 🙂
When I was in residential school, we had to bend over the basin and get smacked on the bottom with a slipper!
Also we had to be checked for lice etc, so we were taken - in the classroom of boys and girls - behind a large blackboard where the 'nurse' would look down your knickers!! So embarrassing even at that young age.
A man ran into me at playtime in the playground and broke my leg (I was six), he didn't even stop to see if I was ok. Kids were seen and not heard then. I cried in class and the B**** of a teacher told me to 'Stop sniveling child'. I managed to get through most of the day until the pain became unbearable. I asked to be excused to go to the toilet, but instead, I crawled up the flight of stairs to my sisters class - she had a very nice teacher - I told her what had happened and she immediately told my sister and her friend to carry me home. They couldn't really carry me and a lorry driver stopped to offer his help, my sister refused to get in the lorry (rightly so) but the driver told her I needed to get to the hospital, she agreed to give the driver our address and the driver took me home. My mum screamed as she thought the driver had run me down. Turned out leg was broken in three places - I was mad at that teacher and frightened to go back to school. Fortunately I didn't need to go back as our turn came up on the housing list and we were moved to a new housing estate (Easterhouse, Glasgow)….we had a bath!!! YIPPEE!