I Got The Cane At School

Yesterday many schoolchildren in the UK went “on strike” in order to protest about lack of action against climate change. There were interesting mixed reactions. The Prime Minister criticised the children. Some other politicians congratulated them. Some schools enouraged them, and some teachers went too. Other schools said the children would be punished on Monday. Three children were arrested for obstructing the traffic.

In the unlikely event that this had happened in my schooldays in the 1960s, there would have been mass canings. Nowadays the favoured punishment is apparently “internal exclusion”, which sounds rather Orwellian. Not entirely clear why this is preferable to, or less cruel than, corporal punishment.

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Bushranger · 70-79, M

You and I are from the same era. Don't you recall the Vietnam protests? I know that I was there in Sydney with a lot of other secondary students. No, it wasn't as a result of brainwashing, it was because enough of us could see the injustice in the war (that is not a criticism of the troops, they had little choice but to be there and deserve respect for their service).

I don't know about you, but at my school we treated caning as a bit of a joke. It had no impact on our behaviours and yes, we did have some teachers who were pretty damn good at it.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Bushranger You will note that I didn’t express any opinion on the merits of the protest or the different reactions. My post is just an historical observation. But no, caning was no joke.