Are there still schools that advocate it?

I know there are some schools that do still use corporal punishment. But even those seem to be very reluctant about it. As a last resort, opt out possible and so on. Is it just what they write publicly in the student and parent handbooks or is it their real policy about it? Are there still schools like many decades back that positively use corporal punishments as a primary tool for classroom discipline?

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Sharon · F

When CP was used in UK schools, lots of schools claimed it was only used as a last resort. In practice it was often the first and only resort. Never trust what a teacher tells you.

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@Sharon At my Junior school, in the post-war dark ages, with classes of 45-48 pupils and one teacher, CP was about the ONLY resort, from the informal slap, the common slippering, and through to a formal one or two strokes of the cane -unforgivably on the hand. Strangely enough, even at that young age, I think we had some sympathy with the teachers, trying to manage on one side a handful of potential Nobel prize winners, and on the other, a larger handful of future jailbirds including -I am not joking - a future convicted murderer whose death sentence was fortunately commuted. Which does raise the unanswerable point of whether CP works or not!

Sharon · F

@MaryWat Part of the thrill of misbehaving was knowing we'd get the slipper or cane if caught. I'm certain we would have been better behaved if that thrill had been absent.

Strictmichael75 · 61-69, M

@Sharon exactly Sharon, did you get cp?

Strictmichael75 · 61-69, M

@MaryWat I think it did in general, people were better behaved and had respect for others
Didn’t stop some bad apples! But that has to be expected

Sharon · F

@Strictmichael75 Yes, I got the slipper loads of times and the cane quite a few times too.

Strictmichael75 · 61-69, M

@Sharon definitely

jackcros · 70-79, M

@MaryWat that could have been a description of my school in the same era. Two of us went on to grammar school and were sitting GCE exams at 15; two others at 15 were convicted of manslaughter.