Friday, February 23

Caned Junior

In Great Britain at least whenever two or more adults get together and start to talk about their schooldays it isn't long before the conversation turns to what happened to the boys and for that matter girls who were naughty.
In days of yawr when I, C* was at school an awful lot could and did happen if you were naughty or otherwise disrespectful in school because this was before the rules in State school started to change and being in school was very much like setting into the Fiefdom of your Head Teacher who pretty much had absolute authority over you in school time and as I also was for a period at boarding school beyond that even.
Like most boys from time to time I did get into trouble and it would get beyond something a classroom teacher might deal with with say a rule or slipper in front of the class.
You would be made to wait outside the Head Teachers office either standing or sitting as your peers would no doubt see you and knew perfectly well why and what you were doing there.
When I transferred up to Juniors was the point in which the way in which were were disciplined moved up a gear as junior boys were caned by the Head Teacher  so it was not so long that a boy in grey shorts, red v neck sweater, grey shirt and red and grey tie soon found himself in his office.
Junior boys unlike most girls after being scolded were always caned across your shorts (or trousers) and so it wasn't that long that I was introduced to the ritual of having bend over a table, chair or bend to ouch my toes to present my bottom for six of the best which was the mark of schoolboys of my generation.
Some might of thought your shorts provided you protection by a well swung cane over them tightly stretch doesn't as it leaves clear stinging lines that lasted ages and certainly made their presence known when you sat back down in class on your wooden hard chair, feeling very chastened for your caning.
I might add here unlike some other settings with adults my disabilities didn't exempt me so you might well ask what do I feel about  it.
My own feelings at the time were very much that I got the consequences I knew for my own actions because it was understood even by a disabled me and more over as I said in October my Junior Head Teacher believed in treating me like all the boys because he know disability wasn't my personality identity and that I knew right from wrong.
He knew boys like me needed firm guidance and discipline just the same if not more so because we could be and at times were spoiled and caning me helped my attitudes and behaviours in check.
Personally I feel caning did a lot of good for me and in general for boys of my generation because we soon learned to respect ourselves and our teachers allowing them to just get on with teaching most of the time from the get go and that authority they allowed us to learn efficiently, not losing time to lots of low level disruption.

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting! I can relate to a lot of your reflexions.

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  2. Bonjour, je suis français mais je connais assez bien l'histoire de la Grande-Bretagne et son système éducatif. A l'inverse de le France, les châtiments corporels étaient autorisés et pratiqués dans les établissements scolaires : pantoufle, strap, tawse, canne...En 1972 se déroula une manifestation de lycéens demandant l'abolition de ces punitions et il fallut encore 15 à 20 ans pour que ce soit effectif. Je sais que certains enseignants le regrettent et que la discipline laisse à désirer dans beaucoup d'établissements, comme en France. Les réflexions de Chris sont intéressantes car il a connu ces châtiments et il reconnait que ceux-ci lui ont "fait beaucoup de bien". En France, ces punitions physiques avaient lieu dans le cadre familial plus strict qu'aujourd'hui : fessées, martinet...

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