Slightly unusual one this month but bear with me. I will emphasise that this a posed photo using a model and not the real thing. Why did I pick it?
Well all in all I attended six different schools while growing up (parents kept moving - it wasn't me being disruptive!) and each had their own individual discipline policies. School number four was quite interesting because there was a lot of classroom based corporal punishment. The reality, looking back, was that little of it was meant to really hurt, and it was just a way for the teachers to say you were pushing the limits and to encourage you to back off a little. There were only three year groups and two classes per year so six classrooms arranged around a central hallway where we had lockers and so on. The headmaster was class teacher for one of the final year classes and was probably the one who was most frequently seen to administer a "beating" - in reality not much more than a single whack on the behind with a stick that probably caused a small tingle. The "punishment" was the embarrassment at being called out in front of your peers, ordered to touch your toes and then thank him when you were allowed to stand up again to return to your seat. Other teachers had their own little quirks and used corporal punishment more infrequently. Other times they might make someone stand in the corner or stand on your chair or...
...make you leave the classroom and stand outside - often for the remainder of the lesson, so you could be there for some time. Superficially this seemed like a nice option, especially if two managed to get sent out, because so long as they kept it quiet they could chat away and avoid the tedium of the lesson. But there was a twist. If the headmaster had a bit of free time on his hands he might venture out of his room and have a quick wander around the hall and if he found someone who'd been sent out he would deal with them in his favoured fashion.
When I saw this picture I immediately thought of a similar situation but perhaps with a headmistress who takes to prowling the corridors at random with a large plimsoll in her hand. Then anyone found to have been sent out of class for talking or other disruptive behaviour would have nowhere to hide. The headmistress would go over to the miscreant, demand an explanation of why she had been sent out, and depending on the normal behaviour of this pupil and the explanation provided she would instruct the girl to bend over and then deliver one, two or even four heavy whack across the girl's bottom. Everyone in the classroom would hear the sounds and know what was happening. The chances are that the girl would, by now, be very red-faced and crying but the headmistress would knock on the classroom door and tell the class teacher that she wouldn't have any more disruption from the girl in this class so she would be pushed back into the room to suffer the shame of all her friends seeing her.
Every one sent out of class would stand there in fear of hearing footsteps coming along the corridor and even if the headmistress ventured out only rarely, it made the whole thing of being sent out of class much more of a punishment.
Well all in all I attended six different schools while growing up (parents kept moving - it wasn't me being disruptive!) and each had their own individual discipline policies. School number four was quite interesting because there was a lot of classroom based corporal punishment. The reality, looking back, was that little of it was meant to really hurt, and it was just a way for the teachers to say you were pushing the limits and to encourage you to back off a little. There were only three year groups and two classes per year so six classrooms arranged around a central hallway where we had lockers and so on. The headmaster was class teacher for one of the final year classes and was probably the one who was most frequently seen to administer a "beating" - in reality not much more than a single whack on the behind with a stick that probably caused a small tingle. The "punishment" was the embarrassment at being called out in front of your peers, ordered to touch your toes and then thank him when you were allowed to stand up again to return to your seat. Other teachers had their own little quirks and used corporal punishment more infrequently. Other times they might make someone stand in the corner or stand on your chair or...
...make you leave the classroom and stand outside - often for the remainder of the lesson, so you could be there for some time. Superficially this seemed like a nice option, especially if two managed to get sent out, because so long as they kept it quiet they could chat away and avoid the tedium of the lesson. But there was a twist. If the headmaster had a bit of free time on his hands he might venture out of his room and have a quick wander around the hall and if he found someone who'd been sent out he would deal with them in his favoured fashion.
When I saw this picture I immediately thought of a similar situation but perhaps with a headmistress who takes to prowling the corridors at random with a large plimsoll in her hand. Then anyone found to have been sent out of class for talking or other disruptive behaviour would have nowhere to hide. The headmistress would go over to the miscreant, demand an explanation of why she had been sent out, and depending on the normal behaviour of this pupil and the explanation provided she would instruct the girl to bend over and then deliver one, two or even four heavy whack across the girl's bottom. Everyone in the classroom would hear the sounds and know what was happening. The chances are that the girl would, by now, be very red-faced and crying but the headmistress would knock on the classroom door and tell the class teacher that she wouldn't have any more disruption from the girl in this class so she would be pushed back into the room to suffer the shame of all her friends seeing her.
Every one sent out of class would stand there in fear of hearing footsteps coming along the corridor and even if the headmistress ventured out only rarely, it made the whole thing of being sent out of class much more of a punishment.
4 comments:
We clearly have much in common, James, except I attended seven schools because of moving around. Ah, the fun of being a new boy. Such delights. I wish I'd gone to your schools where CP only produced a "tingle". Caning on the hands was common in junior classes at one of my schools. no tingling just pain. Girls got away with murder most of the time. Bat their eyes and allow a heads down ad an odd stray tear and suddenly the penalty a boy would have received was all forgotten for a mild telling off. Some memorable exceptions. I'm al in favour of equality and I do hope the girl in your photo is going to tingle more than a little.
Old Tom
Apologies to the Anon contributer who commented on the uniform - it was an appropriate and interesting comment and I didn't delete it, at least not intentionally. If you resend I will try to make sure it appears this time.
Moral Welfare - the cane is another country
Lovely post & narrative, James. Naughty Lil' Suki here is awaiting her fate. She is a red bottom walking (unbeknown to her, sadly) & will soon find sitting almost impossible....not at school, pray. But at home ! As it should be.
Oh my! You see James, her mother had recently said
"Enough already !"
"Next time you goof around at school, Suki - it will be the cane for you, young lady. Do you understand me loud n clear ?!"
Oh dear Oh dear !! Alas, pray, let us rewind a bunch. By way of context.
So... a kind, hard-working, long-suffering Mom is simply exasperated with Suki's attitude & behaviour of late, & so she sought guidance (pray catharsis, already !!) from her buddy, Brenda - a senior lady at Church. Brenda has two young daughters ....& both so very well-behaved n wonderfully polite, too. Pray, how come ? What is Brenda's secret sauce for success ?
"Why, you need to get a cane for Suki", said Brenda rather candidly, at a recent church coffee morning.
"And you must take her pants down & tan her bare backside good n sound. It is the only way. No half-measures. Yes, it stings, Oh my! And it is totally harmless. That nasty lil' cane on a bare botty works pure wonders for naughty lil' girls. It sure has for my own two daughters since the get-go. And, it's just like my sister & I gotten it on our bare bots from our mom back in the day. Just wait & see !"
Brenda was always full of wise words & advice on raising daughters, & was a stalwart (if rather strict, redoubtable persona) in the small, friendly, church community.
Moreover, Brenda kindly assisted Suki's mom in purchasing a fine, whippy-thin, rattan cane of the highest, crated quality. No expense spared. "It is the best investment you will ever make", Brenda had said emphatically.
Suki is currently listening to the phone call from the Head to her mother. A letter home will follow. Suki's mom has place the cane on the sofa, already.
Suki knows not the fate n protocol that awaits her: she will be asked by mom, to take off her skirt & blouse & fold them neatly on the table. She will then stand by the sofa, hands atop her head, in just her vest & pants. This is truly ominous for the cane - ergo no protective covering offered to her buttocks from her skirt across her backside.
Oh my! Boo-Hoos a bunch. Sadly, it gets much worse for our naughty lil' princess - for mom will (after some brief angry scolding & pray, new found confidence) ask Suki to bend across the sofa.
And she will then pull her knickers down to her knees before delivering 12 crisp, hard flicks of the bendy cane across her bare, sensitive-skinned bottom: a baker's dozen if you will, James. Protests, cries & wailing are duly ignored, of course. This is tough love. And this is now the punishment for lil' Suki going forward, without exception. No more nonsense. Cane to bare botty !
Yes, parents who care, cane on the bare. Suki's mom realized that she should have gotten a cane for her daughter years' ago ! A stich in time saves nine, as they say. Never mind - all swell now: the cane is another country.
Pray, "Bottyland", let us call it. And yes, so funny, James, ....spoiler alert ....Lil' Suki's behaviour, attitude, manners & school performance all rapidly improved no end !!!!!!
CP good. PC bad.
Bring back the cane !
Thank you James, as always. King regards.
Good Spartan Brenda xx
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