I Got The Cane Or Slipper In The Sixth Form

I was caned twice during my sixth form years in the early 1960s, once for skipping school and smoking and once for an offence which embarrassed the Headmistress – an agonising six of the best on both occasions. At my school the girl’s age seemed irrelevant when she was to be disciplined. It was entirely the nature and seriousness of your offence that determined your punishment. It mattered not whether you were a trembling 11 year old or a hardened sixth former - a caning offence was a caning offence. The only thing that changed was that the canings became more severe as you got older. The other change of course was that as you matured and became more worldly-wise, you were much more careful to stick to the rules (a plus in favour of corporal punishment) but equally rather more careful to avoid being caught when you did misbehave. So from memory, there was a significant decline in the frequency of canings as we progressed, and by sixth form, it was becoming much more of an ‘event’ when one of us was caned.

Few, if any, of the girls would have avoided the cane in their seven years at the school, but I think only a minority of us sixth-formers got the cane.

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HowardP · 80-89, M

@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.

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@HowardP It wasn't easy standing there. Standing still anywhere for an hour is bad enough, hands on head after a caning is hard. And even the first years can work out 4 6th formers in pe shorts stood in the corridor must have been caned.

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

For completeness I did manage to slide in a question to my sister in a phone call yesterday about her 6th form, 4 years behind me. I know she was caned lower down in school, but alas for this discussion she said no to 6th form and wasn't aware it was done. An easy way to bring up the cane these days is just make a comment about caning anyone who breaks covid19 rules. Most have an opinion on that!

HowardP · 80-89, M

@N2Bparka Covid 19 has indeed offered that opportunity. It's remarkable how people's true feelings about crime an punishment can be revealled when it is they themselves who are affected. My ploy, over many years, has been to say I have a near 100% solution to the speeding problem. Better than fines, loss of licence, or (how ridiculous) speed awareness courses. A caning! Nothing like a Singapore flogging! Just a standards old fashioned school caning. No alternative, no option. Six of the best plus some for serious speeding. Problem solved!

HowardP · 80-89, M

@N2Bparka Another observation about the main topic of this thread - girls who were caned in the sixthform. I think it alwasy varied greatly from school to school, but I see from your age-range, and the fact your sister is 4 years younger than you, that she would have been in the sixth half a generation or more after the lady who started this long discussion, and great changes were taking place in that period. I am of her generation, and I can confirm that both my sisters, at their girls' grammar school, and my wife at hers, were all caned during the two senior years in sixth form.

N2Bparka · 61-69, M

@HowardP Like 6 strokes + 1 for every mph above the limit that was broken ?