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...
4 comments:
Standing in that position alone is a punishment even if nothing else is awarded. Doubtless it is regarded today as a 'cruel and unusual' punishment never mind any CP for dessert. In fact I get the impression that some regard any punishment as unacceptable but just maybe I'm a grumpy old man.
Old Tom
Happy New Year James!
Happy New Year y'all!
Love the hands on head in this vintage photo.
Why yes, Old Tom! I have always joked that I gotten a grounding after I had gotten the cane on my bare bottom, not in instead of!! Growing up at home in the 1960s. It was all just normal & necessary.
Brenda xx
You mean schools actually had policies on discipline?????
I went to a Catholic School so my experience was quite different. Discipline was executed on mood and whim, and was as unpredictable as a woman during menopause.....which I fully believe many of the nuns were influenced by more than piety, propriety, or justice.
My most extreme true eye-witness experience was the almost daily abuse (and I mean grabbing by the back of the shirt and using a kid like a paddleball) to a First Grader who WE all knew was "different" and who in fact was mentally disabled. Praise the lord and pass the yardstick.
I'd love to hear from some public school contemporaries to see what their experiences were? In my area public schools even at that time couldn't hit anyone for anything.
Of course my school had a policy on discipline. It wasn't written but everyone knew it. Piss off a teacher and you got caned. Piss off a prefect and you got detention. Mess about in detention and you got caned. A simple policy.
Old Tom
Post a Comment