I Got The Cane Or Slipper In The Sixth Form

Cane is really bad, bites so deep and stings so hard.

The cane was abolished at school but the teachers would phone our parents if we were naughty and i know some parents caned.

Growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s the practice of corporal punishment was accepted as quite normal. At school and at home. The surrounding culture was supportive, too. Neighbours, friends, parents, schoolteachers. Characters in books and comics- we grew up with expected consequences for misbehaviour.
My parents had the same attitude about rules and behaviour- , that well worn phrase, “As long as you live under this roof you abide by the rules..." sort of mentality.
 
It is ironic that in the Catholic Primary and Girls Grammar school convent I went to we learnt about God meaning LOVE - and yet... I was to overhear the contradictory Biblical phrase about not “sparing the rod!” Several times in my life!
What a lesson as well.
All many, many years ago!
Josie

Reading posts like this make me wish I could have been caned in school, but they stopped doing it before I started school.

Good comment and account, Mary. When I was at Grammar School, probably a decade or so after you, caning was still quite common in the lower school, but it was generally understood that once you were in 6th form, you were no longer liable to be caned - apart from your age, moving into the 6th form in those days meant you were still part of an elite, and expected to behave accordingly. Me and two friends were so very clever that we proved there was an exception to the rule.

School Sports day was a very high profile event with many parents and all staff in attendance. In those days I was good long distance runner, as were these two friends. By the end of the third lap of the mile race, the three of us were half a lap ahead of the rest of the field, and almost jogging. We had a spur of the moment idea - what if, instead of really competing, we all ran together to the line and breast the tape at same moment. Our big mistake was not really making it look like a RACE!

We thought it very funny, as did our pals. Apparently the headmistress did not see the joke, believing she had been humiliated in front of parents, and before many minutes there was a message she wanted to see us first thing Monday morning.

I can't recall what we expected, other than the lecture of lectures, which we got - I think she would have been less angry if we had stripped and run the race naked. But then the shock - and this is verbatim - "I don't like having to beat sixth form girls, but you leave me with no alternative. I am going to cane you." I had been caned before, but I can't recall if that knowledge reassured me or scared me even more. There was some throw-away mention that as sixth formers we had the option to discuss it with our parents and move to another school as an alternative to the caning. Ha ha. Hobson's Choice.

So, at the grand old age of 17, and without protest, me and my two partners in crime had to go and bend over a chair one after the other, had our skirts pinned up, and took six really murderous strokes of the cane on our bottoms. Such were the times. This was 1974 A consolation, if there was any, was that we became legends of our year.

I was a regular recipient of both the cane and slipper in previous years but corporal punishment wasn't used anything like as much in 6th form.

Corporal punishment in 6th form was offered an an alternative to other punishments like suspension. When we committed a serious offence that, in previous years, we would have been caned for, we had the option of a caning or being suspended. As far as I know, everyone opted for the caning. Individual teachers would offer the option of slippering instead of lines or detention too.

I was only a baby when corporal punishment was abolished in school. I used to wish they'd bring it back, it was what I secretly longed for. I had to be content with my dad's belt at home.

@Lynda70 I agree with both Lynda and Sharon; there was no need to mention it - it would have been virtually impossible to hide the fact you had been caned, so the better approach was to be quite open about it - maybe even putting on a bit of bravado you certainly didn't feel . But I think in many ways these post punishment rituals - trying to show stoicism, exposing or comparing stripes - did actually help getting through what for most of us was a genuinely painful and (for many of us) traumatising experience. The "admiration" from classmates at the intensity of your welts did give you a weird sense of pride..

I was caned several times in 6th form. I went to a catholic run comprehensive after a life long catholic education the majority of us were atheists by the time we got to 6th Form we were told that the local bishop would be visiting. We had a six form common room with a record player in it so as the bishop was arriving in the 6th form block we played Patti Smiths version of Gloria at full volume. For those unfamiliar with the song it starts with a spoken intro "Jesus died for somebodies sins but not mine" The were 5 of us stood around laughing in the common room when the Headmaster and 6th Form Head stormed in. We were marched off to the headmasters office by one of the teachers while the Heads were apologising to the bishop.
We had never hear of 6th formers getting the cane so we were expecting suspension. When the head arrived he told us to wait facing the wall in silence. Around 30 mins later we were called into the office. The was a chair placed in the middle and the cane was on the desk. "I have spoken to your parents about your behaviour and they have all given their consent for you to be caned, quite frankly the alternative would be expulsion." We were lined up and he pointed the cane at the boy next to me and told him to bend over the back of the chair and grip the front legs as far down as he could stretch before giving him 10 strokes across the tight trouser seat. I was next and was glad of the chair to hold on to because I was anxious 6 of the best had always been very painful and and extra 4 strokes was nightmarish.
After this we felt we were marked men and within a fortnight the 6th form head had found reasons for us all to be bent across his desk for 6 of the best I got mine for insolence and also sent to him for talking in class.

I was caned three times at school. The first time was when I was 12 - two strokes on my hands. The second time was 3 on my backside for forgetting to do homework for the third time in a term. I had to bend over, hands on knees and my pleated skirt was folded over my back.

The final caning was in the 6th form when I played truant to get some concert tickets and got caught. I remember the lecture which ended in being told by the headmistress that I am afraid I am going to have to cane you!

Girls in the sixth form had just been allowed to wear trousers instead of skirt (which most of us did) and this time I felt my trousers tighten around my bottom as I bent over a chair. I got 6 this time and they made my eyes water and I remember my friends being eager to see my stripes in the toilets afterwards.

Excellent and well written

The cane was awful

@BeckyStone That 'capital punishment' analogy rings true. In discussing my canings over the years I have often referred to them as like an 'execution', in their formality and fearfulness, as well as the intense emotional effect it had on the whole home when one of us was taken for a caning.

Parents are so unthinking too. They never contemplated that caning your bottom would restrict your choice in furniture as an adult!. Personally my distaste is for rattan furniture!

My mom says that schools shud still be able to spank maam

I would have been black and blue if schools still did this 😳🤣

Yes some of us had that experience too

Embarrassing the headmistress? Good for you!

It served you right for cheating, you bad girl. Having said that, six across the knickers hurts like crazy. It also lasts a long time, as you know, the incredible sting does not die down for hours and then the throbbing, the tenderness when sitting, the sudden spasms when you forget and try to run or walk- a school caning was no picnic.

Did you have to take your knickers off and get a bare bottom slippering.

@N2Bparka Thanks for this additional recollection, adding to this treasure trove of what British school discipline was like as recently as 40 years ago. The current generation find it hard to believe, but those of us who were at school certainly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s know from painful experience, just how casually corporal punishment was administered, even to senior pupils.

Your description of how you were caned in the lower sixth must resonate with so many of us of a similar generation. I describe my education, effective though it was, as based on rote, humiliation and pain!

Like with you, at my school, boys who were due for a caning from the Headmaster had to change into PE shorts only, at the beginning of the lunch break and queue outside his office, which was off a main corridor, and where he invariably made you wait for half an hour before the first culprit(s) was called in. And then after you had been caned, you had the miserable walk back to the gym to get dressed. However nonchalant you tried to appear, inside you were in physical and mental agony.

I must say, your hour hands on head in the corridor after 8 strokes of the big cane must have been an act of huge self-discipline after a beating like that. Amazing times! Hated it at the time, but am rather proud of the experiences now.

I was caned three times in the Lower Sixth by the headmaster, Mr Cooper, at King's School, Macclesfield in the late 1960s. The first time was about half way through the first term for arriving 45 minutes late when I had a "free period". "There is no such thing as a free period, boy! It is called private study and is to be done in the library." I got six strokes bending over the back of a chair in the head's study.

The second time was on the first day back after the Christmas holidays. I had skipped some rather boring lessons on cosmology during the first term. The teacher wrote on my report " I have not seen him for two months." The headmaster wrote "The comment by the Cosmology teacher would appear to require some explanation. I trust it will be convincing." It wasn't! Another six strokes.

The third time was on the last day of the second term. I had skived off on the way to the annual Founders' Day service in a church in town. I went for an underage pint in a pub. Eight strokes.

The slipper was used rather less in the Sixth Form than in the Fifth Form and the years below but it was still the main form of punishment. The big difference was that slipperings in the Sixth Form were not carried out in the classroom. Instead the teacher summoned us to the Upper Staff Room at lunch time or after school. We were slippered in a small store room attached to the Upper Staff Room. I was slippered several times in the Lower and Upper Sixth, notably by my Latin teacher, Mr Vigor, for using profane language in the Sixth Form Common Room (nine whacks), and by my French teacher and form master, Mr Haresign for playing truant (12 whacks).

I was caned at school including the sixth form. This was back in the late 70s and early 80's.
My school was a fairly good private school. I am not aware of any abuse scandals, although it converted to a grant maintained school years ago. It was reasonably strict though.
The slipper was the main punishment.By the the I got there more than half the boys were day-boys, but the boarding school spirit lingered. Prefects were able to slipper any boy who was not also a prefect. I was a prefect only briefly, so went through the whole school in thrall to other boys.

The punishments were not excessive and usually deserved. A boy could refuse a prefect beating and appeal to their housemaster. This stopped prefects picking on boys. That said it was difficult to go through a term without getting slippered at least once, by a master or a prefect. I generally got it in French (never any good at languages) or for being gobby to a prefect. Prefect slipperings were generally on the spot: bend over and take your punishment style. The embarrassment of having your bottom whacked in front of your friends was worse than the actual pain most times.

I got caned twice upper school with a group of friends in the third form,for pranking a new teacher. He did not take kindly to our little jokes. The first time we got two strokes each, not too hard. To be honest I was a little disappointed. He did not hit us that hard, more of a warning really.

I was not so disappointed the second time. Rather than let it go, we pranked the same teacher again. This time we got four strokes each, and this time he gave it a bit of welly. I remember the pain getting worse as we made our way to apologise to the teacher. My bum was sore for the rest of the day. It was still a little tender the next day, so it was my bad luck to fall foul of a prefect who gave me a couple of whacks with the sipper for my trouble. It really hurt, i can tell you!

It was on sixth form that I really suffered though. Following an incident on a fifth form trip, I was under suspicion as a homosexual, which was considered a serious deviation in our school.

It was not long into my sixth form life before I was caught coming out of the toilets with a younger boy. Nothing much had happened, then or at any time with that boy, but no one was interested. I admit we were interested in each other, but were both too afraid to do anything.
I protested of course, but was given the choice of suspension whilst the matter was looked into or admitting my guilt and accepting the cane. I had no choice really. It was the other boy I really felt sorry for. He was summoned and was given six of the best in front of me on the strength of my admission. I then took my six strokes. He really gave it some welly and it hurt like hell , but i was determined not to cry. In addition to the cane, I was sacked as a prefect. The worst part was being thought of as someone who had tried to corrupt a younger boy, albeit only a year younger. had he been younger still i have no doubt I would have been expelled. My friends were not overly sympathetic and thought I got what i deserved.

It was a few weeks later that I realised the full import of what had happened. I made the mistake of telling a friend and fellow sixth former to 'f-off'. As a prefect like most of the sixth form this would have been brushed off with a laugh. However, I was no longer a prefect and Andy was a senior prefect (and future head boy). It was another boy who pointed this out. It amused them greatly that they could give me the slipper!

I had a simple choice, accept the slipper from my friend or appeal to Jenkins, the head of sixth form. I took the latter course, but it was pointless. He agreed with my friend, so I had to submit to being slippered by him. What was worse was the school rule was that a failed appeal doubled the punishment (to prevent erroneous appeals). My friend mischievously said he had intended to give me six, the maximum. I had to bend over and let Andy give me six hard whacks with the slipper in front of an amused Jenkins. The only caveat Jenkins put on my punishment, is that it could not be carried out in public, only in front of a single witness.

As you can imagine, the rest of my time in sixth form was precarious. Whilst I remained friends with Andy for years, and the others, i have never been able to shake off the humiliation of being slippered by him. I tried very hard not to cross him, but it amused him to threaten me with the slipper. If I ever transgressed, like forgetting my homework, I could be sure Andy would put up his hand to ask the master if they would like me slippered for my error. It sometimes amused the teachers as much as my friends, so I would have to retrieve a suitable slipper and then follow Andy to a spare room to be whacked. He treated it like a joke, but the slipper did hurt and it was humiliating to have to bend over and let him whack my bottom.

He could not slipper me on a whim. I had to have broken some school rule, but he made constant reference to his power. He probably slippered me half a dozen times, perhaps more, mostly in the lower sixth. However, all prefects were able to hand out non-physical punishments, such as the wall, i.e. being made to spend your break standing hands on head facing a wall. Some of my so called friends would take great pleasure in pulling out my shirt or scuffing my shoes so that they could claim a uniform infringement and send me to the wall.

It came to an end at Christmas in the upper sixth. I was made a junior prefect again. Jenkins did not want the boys distracted by their little games when they had exams to sit.

ouch I was slippered twice in grammar school but last time in 4th form

Too bad canes are now in museums.

Just came across this. I had the cane maybe half a dozen occasions in 1st 2nd 3rd form, then nothing, until right at end of 1st yr sixth. We'd gone to a gig it went on late so ended up very late hehe like just before lunch into school. To complicate the issue, one of us was - not me - seen drinking from a can of beer on his way in. All four of us got eight strokes ... hard ones .... in exactly the same way as junior boys, which was change into PE shorts, nothing else, bend right over a science lab stool kept in the deputy heads office for this purpose. It was only one day to the end of term and he laid it on, with a big cane only seen standing in the corner before. He then made us stand hands on head in the corridor for an hour, which through two period changes so all could see, again just like 12 year olds in first form. 2nd year sixth didn't get caned unless c.p. was offered as an option, but this was 1st yr 6th, no options.

@DavidKing Thank you for that fascinating contribution. When I originally wrote about my two canings in sixth form, I never envisage it would generate so many replies (169 at the moment) or still have people contributing two years later.

In particular I admire your naming of school and the headmaster who beat you! Few of us have that courage, despite the passage of the years.

I am presuming, like most of us, you had been caned prior to sixth form, but there really does seem to be be something especially memorable having to bend over as a senior pupil. Your three reasons for getting the cane are so quintessentially typical of the reasons pupils at quality high schools tended to end up in front of the Principal's desk. One of my other canings, in the Upper fifth, was almost identical to yours for treating a 'free period' as an opportunity, with two friends, to find an empty classroom and play a form of shuttlecock!

Thanks again for your contribution. .

Never got the cane at school but I got it at home twice from my father. Very painful, very embarrassing.

It was similar in my school. Not many of us, boys and girls, got through school without getting the cane. It wasn't used much in sixth form but quite a few of us still managed to get it. It was the same with the slipper. A girlfriend and I got the slipper in sixth form a few times too.

It was the same at my wife's school. She and several of her contempories also got the cane in sixth form.

The accounts on this discussion seem to indicate severe, even cruel, beatings as the norm. I think it was extremely variable though.

My own 1950s-60s schools (2 Infants' due to moving home, `1 Primary, and 1 Grammar - all mixed, local authority) used corporal punishment very rarely and of the 3 or 5 canings I heard on, the most was 4 strokes. Yet the general level of behaviour, and of mutual respect between teachers and pupils, were good, rather denying the notion that children have to be caned severely for anything and everything.

Last week, there concluded a series presented by the former Education Minister, Alan Johnson (Labour), outlining the history of British state-service education, though the prism of a school established 140 years ago in a very poor areas of London. (It still is, I believe.)

In one episode they read extracts from the punishment records from the late 1950s. While the cane was used for most offences, sometimes across a hand, the usual was no more than 2 strokes. There was one of four on "the seat" - I didn't quite catch what for but I think it was attacking another pupil.

Very few of my many friends from widely-varied backgrounds in circles drawn from around widely-scattered parts of England, have ever mentioned having the cane, or it being in common use; but neither have any described their schools as unduly harsh in any way,anyway.

So did many of the contributors here, go to unusually authoritarian establishments run by suppression and brutality, by people who expected pupils to respect them but thought "respect" means "fear", and had no reciprocal respect?

I see that you and I are of a similar age, Mary, and I confirm what you and other writers have noted, that caning in the sixth form was by no means unusual in those days. My sixth form years were from 1957-60 (Unusually I was three years in the sixth. Although I got all the A levels I needed after two years, Iwas too young for University admission)

And I can confirm they had absolutely no compunction in caning sixth formers when their misbehaviour warranted it. However, it is also true that there were fewer caning than in the earlier years, mainly because we were genuinely more responsible, but also much wiser in avoidance strategies.

That said, few of us escaped those sixth form years without at least one caning. And in my school, when you were sent for a caning in sixth form, you got it hard: I was caned three times in those three years, and on each occasion it was a very genuine 'six of the best' .

Fifty years later, it seems crazy, but everyone seemed to accept these punishments as part of the package, "took their medicine", avoided sitting as much as possible for a couple of days, and just got on with life. (I see several of the other comments, from women as well as men, make the same point: you knew the consequences, accepted the punishment, and put it behind you (joke) with little or no resentment.

Plus another reality: the standard of discipline and the academic quality of such schools was outstanding.

Just goes to show the cane does act as a deterrent and you learn to avoid the behaviour that warrants its use.

I had the slipper when I was in 6th form,6 of the best Ouch

I heard that a good thrashing, 6 of the best always maid a Girl wet between the legs is that true.
Sally

The cane is a serious punishment. I used it throughout my years teaching. I'm pleased to hear that it acted as a deterrent for misbehaviour for you,