I used the cane and I now wonder if I was right to do so.

It was child abuse. Basically, hitting children teaches them that if you’re bigger and stronger you can justify striking someone to make them do what you want. So, of course you get compliance initially—kids are scared and humiliated. When I was a kid, especially in parochial school in the 60s, corporal punishment wasn’t illegal or unusual. But I believe it’s why so many people now have weird fetishes about being beaten or beating others. So clearly it isn’t healthy. I’m grateful that by the time I became a teacher it wasn’t being done at most schools anymore.

That was abuse even if you didn’t know it.

In Ohio you would have been arrested.

Brand new account, this is first post and manages to add ‘Corporal punishment’ ‘Sex’ and ‘Education’ out of just 9 groups. WEIRD!

you taught kids to be intimidated.

I am very thankful you were not in any schools I was in during that time.

Racism is another thing that was once considered to be acceptable - of course, we know better than to insult people based on their race today.

As far as punishment goes, as you are patiently trying to get across, what you did was in keeping with the times back then - and obviously, you know better than to do it today.

That's more than can be said about the teacher who hit me with a stick and got away with it after the practice was made illegal.

As for the good and bad of it, that's something that we can spend the rest of eternity debating because of what was acceptable at the time as far as punishment goes... not just at school, but at home, too.

As hard as it is for you, I think that the best thing you can do is to work on forgiving yourself for doing what you did... you were trying your best, within the framework of what was considered to be acceptable at the time.

I am someone who was on the receiving end of corporal punishment at school. While the way that we were disciplined would not be considered acceptable by most people nowadays, I genuinely hold no ill will towards those who disciplined us. In fact I believe it was done to get the best out of us and it worked.

I started teaching at an all boys school in 1976. At that point the cane was still used for discipline but only by a senior teacher, such as the Principal, Deputy Principal or Dean.

In 1981 I became the dean for third form (first year of high school). I think I was responsible for around 4 classes of 13-14 year old boys. I was glad that when my two years came to attend. As a Dean I was focused so much on the negative that it overshadowed any of the positive moments. At least with a senior dean one is writing support letters for scholarships and university housing applications, and helping boys select subjects and define potential career paths.

When I became a Dean again in the 90s I put in a reward system, where each week students were recognised and celebrated for their successes. This is something I wish I had championed sooner, but early in my career I was guilty of just following the system.

Corporal punishment in New Zealand schools was banned in 1987 and formerly abolished in 1990. I was glad when this law was passed. There are other teaching and discipline techniques that can used. I question how effective the cane really was in maintaining discipline because there were boys who saw the cane as badge of honour. I also remember a boy that was given after school community service saying he would have preferred to have been caned (not that he had ever experienced it). The community service was a more effective punishment than any caning would have been and he was giving back to his school community.

People are very different from one another and I can imagine that for some specific people in a particular community under particular circumstances, yes, corporal punishment could have been helpful.

I also really feel your horror at the thought that you might have harmed the children you were responsible for and cared about.

But we all make mistakes and may have to confront unhappy truths. Supposing some of these children were helped, but others at best have unhappy memories about it and at worst, some level of trauma. Can you consider that you may need to repent in some way for the harm you did do?

quite successful - at child abuse


If you had ANY BALLS you would not have used the cane in the first place


weak as piss as long as you got satisfied at hurting children

you should be horrified, and furthermore, this post is fodder for pedophile child-abuse fettishists. you should delete it immediately.

Dispite the bleeding hearts here I am going to say I am glad I got the cane at school and it was very well known form of punishment we all knew was there and some thought they can beat the system and be a smart arse.

I was one of them and getting the cane made me think of my future if I continued my wayward ways and would of most likely ended up in Jail

Caning was still legal when i started teaching in the early eignties and two kids that were causing problems in one of my classes were caned.
Didn’t think anything of it at the time and the threat of the cane was enough to keep me from misbehaving.
And the vast majority of us thought a caning was preferable to a more long drawn out punishment.A a show of hands amongst the sixth form when debating this very subject showed just one of us had not experienced corporal punishment.And all the staff had.Some of them had been caned in school.
But times change....and wnen it boils down to it the cane is a bit of a barbaric instrument of punishment.Causes more than just pain.And now i’m totally against corporal punishment.But i don’t think any of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies had any complaints about it at the time.It was just normal
I don’t think too many teachers from that time or earlier are worried about what they did either.

I admire your courage in questioning what had been considered normal in your past career.

Assuming you were sparing, just and careful; not just some cane-happy sadist, any you damaged were probably a small minority of those you punished.

The worst long-term damage physical punishment seems to inflict on children is to make them grow into adults with an ingrained desire to beat children - their own or others'. That's been known for ages, too: Charles Dickens touched on it in his David Copperfield.

Corporal punishment was a rare, fairly sparing last resort in the schools I attended (lines and detentions were the usual punishment) yet overall discipline was generally good. I think it was because the staff were able to instil respect rather than fear masquerading as "respect", in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

I was a student in the 60's and 70's, and no teacher in any schools I attended hit students with a cane. I have no doubt that it happened in schools, and seriously doubt that such a practice really "turned children around" for the better.

Child abuse

Stick with you saw it turn some around. It’s Biblical…

It was the conventional wisdom at the time. Obviously we have moved on from there. I think its right to feel bad and reflect on it. .. but it was the times.

The fact that you have been questioning yourself about this demonstrates that you are basically a decent and caring individual. We all live in the world as we find it and we adapt/change with the times. There is no point in you judging and questioning your actions 40-60 years ago through today's lens. The world, attitudes and opinions were vastly different back then.

I attended six schools in my time, 3 in England and 3 in Australia. I received corporal punishment at all of them in some form or another, ranging from hand smacks on the back of bare legs when I first started at a Convent school in England, through to canings at my last school (a private Catholic boys school). Corporal punishment at the time was normal, expected and generally, accepted. I knew the rules and I also knew the consequences if I did not abide by them, so it was ultimately my choice.

I can understand your thinking about 'harming' and that can take various forms. Only the one on the receiving end of cp knows how it affects them, physically and mentally. The vast majority of kids that lived in the times when cp was normal have survived very well and gone on to lead fruitful and productive lives. You can't change the past.

It was wrong. Many kids who act out and are badly behaved at school are facing some kind of abuse elsewhere, usually at home. For many of those kids, school is the only place they feel safe. By giving them the strap, or caning them as you call it, is just another person abusing them and now they are no longer safe at school. There was so much ignorance over this subject decades ago. These kids, while they are the hardest to manage, need the most love and support and kindness

It was abuse. Striking a child, much less with an object, is never the answer. It will only leave scars on them.

CP was banned in UK state schools in 1987. Did you teach in a private school?

Some schools and teachers had a sexist policy of only beating boys. That was clearly abuse as they must have had some other way of disciplining girls that they could have used with boys too. The fact that they chose to beat boys instead is strong evidence they were abusive perverts.

Some teachers (male and female) were just sadists who got their kicks from beating children, of either sex.

Although I am not going to flag this thread because perhaps you're honestly trying to evaluate your past actions, comments in this thread justifying or encouraging violence against children will be flagged because it is against the TOS.

Whoever recommended this website to you for THIS particular topic should have explained you need to moderate this thread.

Thank you for sharing. I am glad you are concerned although conflicted. My parents both used corporal punishment, both overdid it, but my mom overdid it worst.

My dad also cared about his children and taught us a lot of good things. I was traumatized by being over-punished, but I also appreciated the things he taught me. Sometimes one of the teaching methods is abusive, but that doesn't nullify whatever good they did otherwise.

All sorts of harm: In 1975 my form room as a pupil was next to deputy head room, and we regularly heard the cane being used. If either deputy head had approached me outside that school, they'd have got an earful. One tried to approach and talk but I stopped him. I am sure he wanted to 'rewrite history' as in retirement he was a successful author. Teachers who want caning back have no place in the profession.

It was just a different time. People were different then. What worked before might not work now because of how our society changed our beliefs over time. After living along time you see the way we conduct ourselves dramatically change when they younger generation cant because they only know whats current. You believe you did good by people and you saw it in them. Let go and focus on whats currently in your life.

I'd like to thank the people who have commented on this post who have questioned what I did in the past, or even outright condemned it. I question it myself and if I was wrong, I may deserve to be condemned.

But as somebody who is new to this site, I wonder at the people who just seem to want to shut discussions down and who are willing to resort to some rather odd tactics to try and achieve this.

Yes, this is my first post. Everybody had to post here for the first time, everybody would have had a first post. I posted on this subject first because that was what I was discussing elsewhere when somebody recommended this site to me. I do intend to post about some other things, given time, but discussion here (both valuable and... less so) has taken much of my free time online over the last day. I haven't got around to posting anything else yet.

I am 63 - I remember many school beltings - over hands as was common in Scotland and other punishments. Often it was the best teachers who used the belt more. The very teachers who helped pupils above and beyond duty. One teacher taught Technical Drawing he was feared and respected. But worked hard to ensure all the boys leaving had jobs to go to and many boys enjoyed meeting him after leaving. Another teacher taught boxing at a club - I learned well from him as did others. He was a belt first and ask questions later man, When two former pupils goy in trouble with the law - car theft. He spoke on thier behalf in court. I think you would have a very similar approach.

{@patioratio] you appear to be having a crisis of conscience over what you did whilst teaching .i am sure you never did this with any excess or malice and was the right thing to do at that precise time as a form of discipline

I wonder how you would feel if I started caning your head?

u did fine. honestly, the academics know s**t.
loving caring discipline provides children with the knowledge that they matter
abuse that fulfills the perverted pleasure of the abuser is one thing
caring discipline structured for the concern of a Childs wellbeing is what is seriously lacking in todays society and we are now seeing the detrimental effects of it
your students benefited greatly from your care.

I think it might be helpful if you could enymerate the numbers of children that cp appeared to help vs the numbers that did not change at all vs the numbers whose behaviuors worsened.

Otherwse, we jst get the "fors" and "agaist" bickering on with their fixed opinions that will never change

Do you think maybe what you were teaching them was if someone doesn't do what they want them to it's ok to hurt them? Seems odd it never entered your mind at the time it might be wrong.

So, what are you going to do to make amends to those "kids"?

Contrition to us isn't going to keep you out of a living hell. You need to find them all and apologize. Chances are you won't get a lot of thanks.

May I ask are you from the UK
Most heads only used it as a last resort and has to think of the other students in the school.

At that time it was acceptable but not anymore it's abuse

a nun used to hit my mom with a ruler..

You were abusing them. You 100% screwed them up emotionally. This day and age, you would be put in prison and rightly so.

I had a teacher slap me across my hands with a ruler and I have never forgotten it.

K