I Got The Cane At School
At my junior school (age 8-11, the lower school of a leading boys' grammar school), all misdemeanours were punishable with a detention. Four detentions in one term meant the cane.
The first time a member of my class was up for the cane was, I think, at the end of my second term. A boy in my class was given a detention and burst into tears because it was his fourth of the term. However, days went past without his being summoned to the head's study, and in the event the caning never happened. It transpired that his parents had intervened and prevented the caning.
The rest of us had mixed feelings about this. Nobody wished a caning on anyone. (We all had, or thought we had, a vague idea of what it must be like to be caned, even though very few of us had ever felt the cane.) On the other hand, we all knew that if it had been us, our parents would have allowed justice to take its course. And that's how it should be, I think. If you join a club you should abide by its rules, even if you disagree with them.
The first time a member of my class was up for the cane was, I think, at the end of my second term. A boy in my class was given a detention and burst into tears because it was his fourth of the term. However, days went past without his being summoned to the head's study, and in the event the caning never happened. It transpired that his parents had intervened and prevented the caning.
The rest of us had mixed feelings about this. Nobody wished a caning on anyone. (We all had, or thought we had, a vague idea of what it must be like to be caned, even though very few of us had ever felt the cane.) On the other hand, we all knew that if it had been us, our parents would have allowed justice to take its course. And that's how it should be, I think. If you join a club you should abide by its rules, even if you disagree with them.
