The "T" Word

It will come as no surprise to my regular blog-viewers that I maintain a folder of images to use in future "Favourite of the month" posts. It provides for a handy filtration tool - often I put something into that folder and then later on, sometimes just as it comes up to the moment that image is due to be posted, I change my mind and decide the image just doesn't quite make the cut. This one is different, in that my initial impression was this might be a candidate, but then I ruled it out of ever making the folder for one massive reason. The tattoo. For me, it just spoils the whole scene. I realise that some people really love tattoos and others would think I'm being too picky. But, hey, it has to be a personal favourite for me and I can't put it in that category for that one simple reason. Just wondering how others feels about this.

  

Hypothetical dilemma (3)

 Okay, so it's time for another hypoethical dilemma for us all to turn our (slightly warped!) minds towards. This one is based on an actual factual event I experienced in my school days so I'll tell you about that first. For the benefit of those who may not be overly familiar with my history, I was at school in the UK during the era when corporal punishment was just about beginning to decline but was far from unusual. Between the ages of eight and eleven I attended an all-boys school where fairly mild corporal punishment was routinely dished out in the classroom environment - things like a single hard swat with a plimsoll or stick across your trousers as you touched your toes at the front of the class.

One day our regular class teacher was unavoidably away, engaged in duties elsewhere - the school managed to arrange for different teachers to cover all of our classes apart from one. At the start of that particular class the senior teacher came in and announced that we were going to have be trusted to behave ourselves for the next forty minutes or so. He set us some work to be doing and reminded us that he'd be teaching in the classroom next door and that he'd better not hear any noise from us. Of course, the situation deteriorated fairly quickly and after about fifteen minutes, there was total chaos - everyone was out of their seat and running around and we clearly misjudged the amount of noise we were making. Suddenly the door opened and the senior teacher was framed in the doorway - the first thing I saw was that he was clutching his trusty plimsoll in his hand and was looking very angry.  We all scuttled back to our seats as if to make believe we had been innocent all along. He waited until everyone was back where they were meant to be and then pronounced "I warned you that I wanted to noise. Well I haven't got enough time to waste beating all of you as I should do." There was a short pause, then he pointed the plimsoll at one particular boy "You happened to be the first I saw when I opened the door so you come out here and touch your toes." I remember breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't pointed at me, and then I looked around to see the red-faced boy making his way out to the front of the classroom. He was far from a regular offender although I think he had been slippered on maybe one occasion previously but he looked rather upset to be the centre of attention right now. As instructed he bent over with the tips of his fingers on his shoes and his legs as straight as he could manage - again my recollection at that point was that his short grey trousers were stretched very tightly and you could quite clearly see the shape of his two buttocks. I don't know why everyone was always so compliant in that situation but we just were - nobody ever tried to get away with being just half bent over, even though we were assuming a much more uncomfortable position and probably making the subsequent beating hurt even more as a result. The arm holding the plimsoll went back high in the air and swiftly came down across the one buttock with a crack as a loud as a gunshot and then before there was any chance to react it went back again and came down, maybe even harder, on the other side. "Right, back to you seat." The boy's face was as red as his bottom probably was and he complied quickly, probably anxious not to be centre stage for a moment longer than he needed to be.  He looked very close to tears but I think he managed not to actually cry.

"Right, now back to your work IN SILENCE. Consider yourselves all to have been given a good beating and  if I have to come back again, inconvenient as it may be, I promise you I will soundly beat every one of you with double what you have just seen your colleague be given."

Most of us heeded the warning and tried to get on with the set work - one or two started messing around, primarily the regular delinquents who were no strangers to getting a beating or two and who probably quite liked the idea of trying to get some of those who never did anything wrong into trouble and getting to see how they took a beating, but by and large peer pressure kept things under control, and we survived the rest of the class without another visitation.

Alright, so there is a true factual situation that occurred in the early 1970's. For your hypothetical I need you to put aside any feeling you have about whether corporal punishment should or should not be used in the classroom. You are now the senior teacher in the scenario I've just outlined. To make it more interesting, we'll make it a mixed class and one where girls as well as boys could be given a physical punishment, although it was much less common - probably for every ten times a boy was beaten, only one girl would get it. You come into the class, everyone scrambles back to their seat, and as they do you hit on the idea of punishing just one (or two) as an example - you can justify punishing them for being rowdy, but you get to choose.

• Do you choose a boy or a girl or one of each?
• Do you choose a regular offender? That has the advantage that you know you can hit them jolly hard and they'll accept it and there is very unlikely to be a complaint.
• Do you choose someone who you believe has never had a beating before? That gets across the message that it could happen to anyone and they might show more reaction, even to a more moderate punishment - perhaps you'd even get some tears - on the other hand, there is the slim chance a parent might complain about them being picked on (okay, so you have the 'first one I saw' and the fact they were breaking the rules so you're okay, but it might be a bit more hassle).
• Do you choose one you particularly have it in for (probably a regular offender) where you relish the chance to make them suffer another embarrassing punishment?
• Do you chose one that you've always thought had a rather nice bottom that was just made for being whacked, but who had never given you the slightest excuse?
• Do you play it straight and genuinely pick out the one your eye fell on first the moment you opened the door?

Your free choice, but aside from any other (possibly devious) intentions, you need to make an impression that will probably mean the rest of the class passes relatively quietly.

 

Favourite for January

A New Year means "In with the new!"

One thing that has always fascinated me is the way in which schoolkids learned about how discipline was applied in their school. I mean, I don't think I've ever heard of a new intake of pupils being sat down and getting the school rules and possible sanctions explained to them. So most times, the way they learned was by observing others (if they were lucky) being awarded punishments for certain misbehaviour. Over a period of time, you would probably learn first about things the school regarded as minor indiscretions (but indiscretions nonetheless) and the lesser sanctions that you risked if you did those things. It would be relatively unusual for someone to be made aware of a fellow pupil being given more serious punishment early on but eventually that would happen. Also people got to hear of examples of older pupils getting into more serious trouble - perhaps where a classmate had an older sibling in the class affected - but there was always the possibility that someone was exaggerating in order to frighten or impress a younger pupil.

But, inevitably, there will always be some who are the first in their class to discover first-hand how seriously certain behaviour is viewed and how the school addresses such matters. Common sense tells them, for example, that fighting is something the school strongly disapproves of. And waiting outside the office of the headmistress, facing the wall, hands on heads, in obvious disgrace, they are left to their own thoughts, wondering if the tales they heard of the headmistress caning girls for such offences are true and whether that is to be their fate. And if so, is the cane really as painful as people have suggested? And it can be quite a long wait to find out...