I Witnessed Corporal Punishment At School

In some cases it actually increased misbehaviour. Getting the slipper or cane was seen by some as a badge of honour. When I was at school, my class had a slipper league where we kept score of the number of slipperings and total number of strokes we each received. I was near the top.

@Sharon: How many points were needed to win the league each term?

It was based on the number of slipperings and the number of strokes over the year. I can't remember the exact figures now and certainly not for each year but the winning figures were in the region of a few hundred whacks and bit over a hundred individual slipperings.

@Sharon: Thanks. That level of frequency is ridiculous, I think. My school was at the opposite extreme - maybe one or two canings a week in a school of 800 boys, no other form of cp. Perhaps there is a happy medium.

@MartinII: It should have been obvious CP wasn't working to curb misbehaviour or was being used excessively but, in those days, teachers didn't care about things like that. My school had about twice as many students as yours and girls were subject to the same rules and punishments as boys.

@Sharon: I know lots of teachers were like that. My school was rather different. Most of the masters (no women teachers) did their best to avoid formal punishments. Admittedly, we were almost all posh middle class boys.

Women teachers were the most frequent users of CP by about 4 to 1, they certainly didn't try to avoid using it. We were just working class boys and girls.

Why do you think the women used cp more than men?

In some cases I'm sure they got a buzz from it. In others because they wanted to exert their authority or didn't want to appear weak. Some were just cruel but so were some men.

When I was in private school in my early years, corporal punishment wasn't allowed. However, we did have detention that involved the offending students sitting in desks, feet flat on the floor, hands folded on the desktop, staring straight ahead at the chalkboard for two hours, with only a one-minute stretch every 15 minutes. Breaking form meant you got another detention.

I had to sit through it once. I'd have definitely preferred a paddling and made sure I didn't have to do it again. I reserved my misbehaviour for other venues...

@MartinII: I don't think women did use it more than men. Both male and female teachers used corporal punishment at my school with roughly equal frequency

@isabelrider: Thanks Isabel. I can't speak from personal experience, but quite a lot of people have told me that women teachers in their schools were particularly keen on cp. Your school and Sharon's were of course very different.

@Trysta09: that sounds strict

@MrsPeterEvans: At junior school our detentions were like those of @Trysta09, though only for 30 mimutes. Even so, that seems more cruel to me than a quick spanking.

@MartinII: I think there is an enormous advantage in a spanking which is over quickly, over a drawn out detention

@isabelrider: I completely agree. My (rare) school spankings were much more effective than my (rare) school detentions!

@MartinII: I think a spanning enables all concerned to move on, whereas a detention (often not until the following day) drags things out and builds resentment.

@MartinII: I agree too. I much preferred a quick slippering to a drawn out detention.

@isabelrider: In my first term at junior school, aged 8, a lady teacher gave me a detention for a very minor misdemeanour. The details were written down in my personal record book. I had to get my parents to sign it. After school next day I served my sentence - half an hour facing the front, hands on desk, absolutely still and silent, supervised by the same teacher. So much better if, the previous day, she had just called me out to the front and given me two or three whacks. Lesson learnt, by the rest of the class as well as me, and all over in a couple of minutes.

@MrsPeterEvans: It was--and, I think, more painful than any spanking.

@MartinII: Even at half an hour, I can imagine kids didn't want a repeat experience.

@Trysta09: Yes, you make a fair point. But my own recollection of detentions is that they made me resentful. I don't remember resenting a spanking. I just rubbed my stinging bottom, wiped away a tear and got on with life.

@MartinII: That's how I felt. Time wasting punishments like lines and detentions just made me resentful. I had no respect for teachers who imposed them. I had a lot of resepect for those teachers who slippered us for misbehaviour.

@MartinII and @Sharon: Maybe they should have an option for kids: one for those who would prefer detention and one for those who prefer being hit. I'm guessing the first line would be longer but we'd still be able to compare the recidivism rates easily enough.