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I Had Corporal Punishment At School

Between England and Australia, I went to six different schools and I experienced cp at all of them. Except for when first arriving in Australia, I attended Catholic schools and by the time I was ready for high school, I was sent to a private Catholic boys only.

I have vivid memories of being smacked on the back of my bare legs a Nun several times at my first school (a Convent school). Then as I progressed, it would be a ruler on the hands or legs and by the time I was in grade 6 & 7 (Australia), I and many other boys (never girls it seemed) would be taken into the corridor for a few whacks with the board ruler.

In high school there were rules and regulations for everything and a common consequence for breaking the rules was the cane. All the teachers, through to Home Group masters, Housemasters, the deputy Head and Headmaster all caned. Housemasters and higher were the ones that gave the more serious punishments. I never got anything less than 4 strokes from my Housemaster, but often it was 6 or 8. Prefects did not have any authority to administer cp, but they could report a boy and recommend the cane.

My attitude to it was somewhat ambivalent. I certainly didn't like it at the time of each punishment, but I also knew that I was the one misbehaving or flirting with the rules. With one exception, I cannot say I was caned unfairly or undeservedly and I certainly don't have any resentment. I had the opportunity to get not only a good education, but to enter high school as a boy and leave as a man prepared (somewhat) for the cruel and unpredictable world beyond. The fact that some of that preparation was beaten into me, is of no concern to me.

During high school I came to realise that I was one of those that definitely benefited from the application of rattan to the backside, and I still do! It keeps me grounded and sane.
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oneofnine · 70-79, M
The cane played a part in my upbringing too.
@oneofnine It was very common in English schools in those days. There were several canings in my school every week, girls as well as boys.
oneofnine · 70-79, M
@NortiusMaximus And in my all boys school. In fact, there were several most days.
april50 · F
@NortiusMaximus Same in my school. It's one area where I would not have objected to a bit of gender discrimination.
@april50 You can't have an unequal equality. That said, I'd have been quite happy for my school to have a policy of only caning girls and letting boys off scot free.
april50 · F
@NortiusMaximus Interesting and serious point. My schooling was in the 1960s, a period of great inequality for most females. Yet reflecting on my school, I cannot think of a single way in which girls were not treated identically to boys - good things, bad things, and even curriculum choices. And obviously to discipline. And us girls just took that as part of the natural order. For misbehaviour or rule breaking, our punishments were identical to what the boys got for the same offence, including canings and the slipper.
@april50 [quote]My schooling was in the 1960s, a period of great inequality for most females.[/quote]
It was a period of great inequality for most males too. It's not possible for inequality to only work one way. Some schools had sexist policies of only caning boys. As someone else here said, teachers who did that were obviously perverts who got their, probably sexual, kicks from beating children. They must have had ways of keeping girls in order that they could have used with boys but they chose to beat boys instead,