I Used to Get the Cane At School

The cane was awful!!

I hated the cane and being sent for it was a wholly frightful experience. It was made far because by having to take your "execution slip" as we called it, to the secretary first to make an appropriate time if you were unlucky enough for the Headmistress not be immediately available. The smirk on her face was more than just humiliating as she would call through and say "shirley xxxxxxxx is here with a teacher's note".

It did not mean one would necessarily be caned, that depended partly one's record and offence but mainly on her mood I am sure! I would go into her study praying she were in a reasonable mood because if not I knew I would be leaving her study with my bottom on fire and with marks that would last for some time. That resulted in another pet hate, going to PE or games with cane marks on my bottom and especially in the showers afterwards.

If I did get caned then I would have to take the note back to the secretary so that she could make an entry into the punishment book. I have never knew anybody that was caned on their hands but she would ask "were you caned on your bottom or hands", my face would grow as red as my bottom as I answered between sobs.

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SW-User

This sounds very familiar to me.

CarolineP · 70-79, F

@SW-User LOL. I think it sounds familiar to most English women of our generation. In my school, it was certainly a "familiar sound"! Can laugh at it now, but it really was awful at the time.

SW-User

@CarolineP It certainly was and certainly left a lasting reminder. That sinking feeling when the Headmistress went to the cane cupboard was frightening.

CarolineP · 70-79, F

@SW-User Sickening is the perfect word for the moment the cane was produced, and all hope of escape vanished in an instant. At this distance in time, it amazes me just how biddable and compliant we were in submitting to what we knew would be excruciating corporal punishment.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@CarolineP @SW-User Do you think the cane was used in all or nearly all girls schools in those days? At the time I had the idea that the cane was something boys got and girls didn’t. I now know I was wrong, of course, but was I completely wrong or only partly wrong?

SW-User

@MartinII I can not comment on all schools but those in my area certainly did as my bottom can testify.

SW-User

@CarolineP in that era I certainly would not have argued with any teacher let alone the Headmistress with a cane in her hand. She was frightening as she walked from the cane cupboard gently folding it. My heart sank, my stomach churned and my knees went weak. Then those horrible words “bend over”. OUCH!!!

CarolineP · 70-79, F

@MartinII In those years, you tended to assume that what occurred in your small universe was universal, and that in all girls schools, getting the cane for serious misdemeanours was the norm. Clearly it clearly wasn't. Even within one Educational Authority there were huge differences. The late and unlamented ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) there were girls school that used the cane promiscuously, and others where CP had been abolished.

As Superjulie notes, it very much depended where you lived. I don't think it even reflected class or social environment. It was the luck of the draw. My area was tough working class, and we all got the cane. My current best friend came from a very posh part of the UK. Her school was also a vigorous user of the cane.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@CarolineP Thank you very much for that. I agree it varied from school to school, as well as between types of school and different areas. Also it seems that in some mixed schools boys and girls were treated equally, whereas in others boys were much more likely to be caned than girls were.

I’d love to talk more if you are interested. May I message you?

CarolineP · 70-79, F

@MartinII I don't do on line chatting, but will happily correspond on a messaging basis.