School masters discretion

I have often wondered how it was that some masters used the cane and others did not. After I had left my school I asked one of the masters at an event for 'Old Boys' if they needed to get special permission from the Headmaster to administer CP. Apparently they did not, and at their original interview the Headmaster had made it clear that how they maintained discipline was entirely down to them and that if that included the cane they could get the necessary supplies from the School Janitor. They were however told that there was a maximum of six strokes unless an extra stroke or two were added for not maintaining position. Pushing my luck I asked if the Headmaster gave any guidance on whether trousers could be taken down. The answer was, no such guidance was given and individual masters could use their discretion to decide how the cane was applied. Apart from the Headmaster who always caned boys with their trousers in place, only two other masters regularly used the cane, one of which always caned over trousers but the music master was fond of making boys taking both trousers and underpants down or completely off prior to touching their toes for six strokes (always six). I think he liked his work a bit too much. Does anyone else know anything about how Headmasters instructed their teachers or was it simply left to their own discretion?

I think the answers you get will very much depend on the country and type of school. I assume your experience is of a private( public) English school?

Education authorities often gave instructions on the application of CP. In addition, in Ireland, there was a Department of Education circular setting out how CP was to be used. Mind you, the guidance provided was often ignored.

Headmasters or principals often set the tone on the application of the cane or strap. In our village the school had a reputation for being harsh in the application of the strap while a neighbouring village, two miles away, had a more restrained approach to its use. For that reason many families sent their daughters to the neighbouring village school while sending their sons to the local school in the believe that boys needed harsher discipline than girls. While I don't think either headmaster set out specific rules they most definitely set the tone regarding the use of the cane or strap.

Interestingly , the secondary school in the village was somewhere in between. Those of use who had attended the local primary school felt the secondary was more laxed while those who attended the primary school in the neighbouring village found it harsher.

Incidentally, in our school the usual instrument used was the school strap, rather like the Scottish tawse but not split. The more junior classes were slapped with a wooden ruler. At least one teacher favoured the cane over the strap so I suspect there were no hard and fast rules. The reverse applied in the secondary school, the cane was almost universal I think.

By the way, any teacher asking a pupil to remove clothes would almost certainly be dismissed.

My experience was in Texas schools where the wooden paddle ruled. In my district, the Principal set the tone. The district had some basic rules for corporal punishment such as not paddling students within sight or sound of other students. Most of those "rules" were ignored, as most students paddled by teachers got it outside the classroom in the hall where we all heard it. In Jr. High in some classes such as PE and shop class it was done in view of the rest of the class. Teachers who paddled still did it outside the classroom in the hall. In all schools, if you got paddled in the Principals office, anyone outside the office heard it, saw you come out trying to pretend your backside wasn't in flames, which everyone knew was a lie.

In the sixties and seventies south, the paddle was king in Jr. High. It was done in the hallway, and the student wasn't allowed time to recover from the painful ordeal. It was back to the classroom immediately after the corporal punishment. Classmates saw the results of what they had just heard from inside the classroom. The sight of eyes glazed over and a usual wince when their bottom hit the chair.

I'm very surprised he got away with that - even back in the day. But what is it about music teachers? At my school too, they were the ones who seemed to have a penchant for cp. The other teachers mostly left it to the Head.

Yes, and the class would get quiet enough to hear a pin drop so they didn't miss a single detail.

All my primary school teachers used corporal punishment, and generally for the same issues, so there was little variation. But there was variation in secondary school.

A principal or head teacher could manage the use of CP by issuing rules or guidelines, in line with the national or local authority guidelines , or they could restrict the use of CP and reserve its use to themselves.
Common sense would suggest that a teacher who was too fond of the cane might be taken to task by a principal who disapproved of CP but the reverse is unlikely, i.e. it is hard to see a principal ordering the use of CP by a reluctant teacher.

In my secondary school most teachers used CP. The exceptions were teachers brought into the school part-time to teach extra subjects such as art or religion. They would send any misbehaving student to the principal or deputy. ( boys were sent to the male principal while girls were sent to the female deputy.) In addition, some male teachers would not use the cane on girls and instead would send them to the deputy principal. There might have been a female teacher who didn't want to cane boys and would send them to the principal but I cannot remember if that ever happened.

Interesting , Stevenr, that the paddle , in Texas, was used in private. Except for those sent to the principal or deputy, all our punishments were delivered in the class room. Quite a lot of CP was for failure in lessons. If you misbehaved or if you failed a question you would be sent to stand in a line at the side of the class or told to stand at your desk. Then, when all students had been questioned or near the end of the lesson, the teacher would take the cane and either stand at the head of the line and each student would step forward to be caned on the hand or the teacher would walk through the classroom caning each student standing at their desk. Those sent to the principal/deputy might be caned on the bottom and that might be along with other students sent for the same , so not strictly private either.

I remember that some teachers were moody and some days they might be happy and joking with the class and the next day would have half of us in the line for almost nothing. Other teachers were much more predicable and might only use the cane for persistent misbehaviour or failure at lessons.

With the variety of teachers and with about twenty five students in each class , the cane would be used , on average, two or three times as week in addition to those sent to the principal/deputy. I know that the cane was used a lot more in other schools at the time, especially those schools run by the Christian Brothers.

In answer to Smachai earlier comments, yes English Public school. If it had been fifteen years later the music master may have faced more than just dismissal, but in the sixties he got away with caning you on the bare, and it would have been unthinkable to challenge a master when told to drop your trousers or for any reason for that matter. Did the Headmaster know? There are three answers - he was unaware (unlikely) - he condoned it (unlikely) - he knew and ignored it (probable). At the time none of us thought much about it, accepting that it was just part of school life - in nine years I received the cane three times, but only once from the music master. Yes AlanBarr, what was it about music masters? - he was clearly enjoying himself, but you only realised that later in life. Apart from the first caning of the year from the history master in front of the class, all such punishments were given in private unless there was two boys involved who would often be caned in front of each other. When you knew a boy was being caned we often used to 'hover' around outside to listen to sound of the cane striking the unfortunate's bottom. I mentioned previously the PE master who gave countless whacking during gym class, normally only a couple of whacks. But if you knew if sent to the changing room that it would a shorts down whacking, and strangely I have never held anything against him for the one and only time he sent me to the changing room.

Yes, there never seemed to be much sympathy or solidarity amongst schoolboys, it was more a case of taking delight in another's misfortune!

When I was at an all-boys secondary school the cane could be administered by the headmaster or his deputy only. This didn't mean that no other masters would ever hit a boy, but any unofficial punishment with a ruler or a bunsen burner tube for example was rare and moderate. As has often been noted, the gym and swimming pool were another world and PE staff could and would use a slipper or a flipper or just kick you up the bum on the rugby pitch.

One of my friends - a nice, mild-mannered young man - who was a geography teacher but also part-time PE teacher would get his own back on any boy who'd been a problem in geography by putting himself in the opposing soccer team and fouling the offending player in the games lesson.

A female friend who went to teacher training college after her degree would slipper offending kids in her stock room. Nobody thought this was untoward as long as it didn't get out of hand because of course the head wouldn't have wanted a constant stream of offenders sent to him by a specific teacher.