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.

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Caned4doz · 61-69, M

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.