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

I was a teacher from the late 1960s until the late 1980s - a fairly short career as these things go although I was quite successful - spent my last few years as a Head Teacher.

Part of my job was to use corporal punishment. I believed then that I was doing this in the best interests of the children I taught and I'd like to continue to believe that. But I find myself in a world now where we're constantly being told this was bad for children and that worries me immensely. I just can't reconcile it with what I saw as a teacher. I saw it work. I saw it turn children around. I saw it help children. I really do think that's true. But I take psychological and pedagogical research seriously and I can't reconcile it with what I saw myself.

I am honestly horrified at the idea I might have harmed these children.

Jenny1234 · 51-55, F

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