I have already related the case of an incident at junior school where the teacher was about to cane a boy and suddenly decided he could not go through with it and hurled the cane across the room, much to the relief of the boy , no doubt.

At grammar school there was a much more bizarre incident. The ceilings at my school were covered with patterned tiles which had holes in them of various sizes.

My headmaster, who was a small, very ferocious Welshman, was about to cane about four boys and had them lined up in his office. He lifted up the cane and the tip of it got caught in a hole in one of these ceiling tiles. Attempting to free the cane he only succeeded in bringing down the tile narrowly missing him and the boy.

It is unclear whether he continued with the canings there and then , or abandoned the punishments for a later time. I know this sounds pretty unlikely, but as Richard Littlejohn might say , you couldn't make it up.

I heard the story at the time and again some years later from a different source.Does anyone have tales of abandoned canings or other punishments that didn't go as planned.

Hi Declan, a great story! I suspect that far from abandoning the punishment he probably gave the lads double for laughing, which I'm sure they did!

I can't match that incident in terms of conventional school CP. However, I've previously mentioned the window pole hurling teacher at my school, and since this practise was intended to punish or at least alarm malefactors in his classes it could be considered a form of corporal punishment. It certainly would have been an extremely severe form of corporal punishment, quite possibly even capital punishment, if he'd ever hit anyone full on with the metal hook end! Happily as far as I'm aware he never did, and apart from some slight collateral damage from the passing wooden shaft as it oscillated in flight the victims all escaped scot free, which was doubtless his intention anyway.

One one occasion he launched the pole at a lad at the back of the class sitting by an open window. As it left his hand the stately figure of the Headmaster was observed through said window, proceeding along the path beneath the window and thus inevitably on his way to visit this classroom, which was the only place the path led. Happily the Head glanced neither to right nor left as the pole sailed through the air, missed its intended target as usual, shot out through the window and embedded itself quivering in the border beyond the path and behind the Head who incredibly didn't seem to notice.

Nothing was said. The master gestured frantically at the intended victim who, as the Head rounded the end of the building, leapt out of the window, grabbed the pole, and dived back into the classroom. By the time the Head entered the classroom the pole was back in its place and peace and serenity ruled. I've often wondered if the Head really didn't notice his narrow escape from being impaled by the window pole, or if he diplomatically did a 'Nelson' and turned a blind eye. I suspect the latter, he didn't miss anything normally! However this was a very popular and successful teacher and he probably decided discretion was in order. The only certain thing is that even if he didn't observe the pole on his way in he couldn't have missed it on the way out if it hadn't been so speedily retrieved!

Anybody who has ever caught a cane in a rotating overhead fan is especially careful in future.

I've also 'missed' my target on a few occasions.

I've aborted canings for a variety of reasons. Not all of which involved things going 'wrong' but rather to avoid a developing risk of that happening.

The ones I really see as having gone 'wrong' are the rare cases where I later discover the boy didn't deserve it.

No one ever deserved caning. The whole thing is counterproductive and has no place in any society.

The teachers in my school were far too 'savvy' to allow anything to interrupt a caning. In any case the ceilings were very high (the orginal building dated from the 19th century), so there was never any chance of the cane coming into contact with it.
I can never recall an occasion where a classroom caning was abondoned, and I never heard of it in the headmaster's office either - unfortunately!

Dr Dominum: This past March 30th in the Running List you indicated that a caning was aborted because of a sneeze, from 6 strokes to four. Did he say God Bless You. Maybe it wasn't an act of God that aborted the caning but sneezing powder?

A bad caning generally involved a victim being unable to take it in the normal Stoical way.

One Friday afternoon two boys in my form were called to the headmaster to be caned for fighting. They got I think three on each hand. One of them returned as per normal but the other on sitting down started wringing his hands and groaning loudly. This continued for the rest of the lesson to the embarrassment of everyone present. The teacher decided to ignore it and did his best to continue as normal.

I don't know why the boy reacted like this. He was quite an experienced canee and beyond the age at which tears might be expected. He possibly felt that the punishment was unjust and as a result lost his self-control.

On another occasion I was in a group of boys being caned by the headmaster for some run of the mill offences. When it came to the turn of the "naughtiest boy in the school" I was astonished when he stood up after each (not especially hard) stroke and begged the headmaster to stop. The Head, who was not a cruel man, looked uncomfortable but insisted on completing the punishment.

To the best of my knowledge neither incident was mentioned subsequently, which perhaps shows that a good tone existed in the school.

Just to put a perspective on things. Any SCP given to a child by an adult is beyond reason.
This is because an adults perspective on what is acceptable is well beyond what a child can reasonably take.
Believe it or not my mother at aged 11 was caned so hard at school on the hands that she was in hospital for a week!
Perhaps some advcates can now see the danger of it.

An interesting but very complicated subject. Once in my Sixth form days ( independent UK school ; boarding and day ) , I took the opportunity when preparing to speak in a debate ( between ourselves and our sister school ) on corporal punishment, to raise this with my 'friend' the acting deputy head miss F ( on secondment from our sister school , due to long tem illness of our deputy) . To my surprise, ( because I admit I initiated the discussion more out of curiosity than real 'need'), she was quite open and discussed the issue frankly and at length.

I should admit at this point that in my youth I was a committed diarist, a residual habit from my days as a school 'wimp', and I put this conversation down almost immediately afterwards .I found the diaries again a couple of years ago clearing out the family home. The record below is a summary of that entry . Please remember this was given in the late 1970's so some issues might seem quite dated, as is the science which omits the genetic argument at that time not proven-and I may have recorded or understood some issues incorrectly !

She told me that she aborted around two to three percent of the canings she initiated. She said that a caning was a complex issue involving a potent mix of psychological stress, physiological response and .neurological trauma. The latter involving biochemical pathways, and hormonal responses. It was almost impossible to guarantee the response of an individual, and indeed the intensity of the response varied from indidual to individual and even day to day. Additionally it involved external factors, including the setting, and the approach of the caner and so on. . It also depended to a great extent on the individual administering the caning being able to reproduce a recognisable pattern and degree of punishment ( over time) which made prediction less of a guesstimate. In this regard the caning of girls was far far more difficult than boys and required a great degree of understanding, and luck- Indeed far fewer were suitable to be punished effectively in this way. But there was a subset for whom it did work, and sometimes overriding ciumstances.

In her opinion the majority of aborted canings were due to a bad initial decision as to the type of punishment to select for that individual. This left her with difficulties in particular when in those days there were certain 'mandatory' penalties in the boys school , for smoking , bullying , cheating. Etc.. This she indicated had been worse in the US where, as a VP, she had been required to follow a set tariff for paddlings which she saw as unsatisfactory .

In our case in School canings arose in two ways, those she chose to initiate where the punishment was determined and administered by herself, and those where students were sent to her for 'suggested' punishment by junior staff who were not authorised to cane. She found this system unsatisfactory , as she often changed the recommendations of the junior staff, and would come under criticism for 'always knowing best'. Her feeling that if was administering the cane it was for her , and no-one else to determine what she was comfortable with as she 'carried the can'.

Her greatest difficulty was with the youngest kids facing mandatory penalties, where she was sure they would not stand, or where it would be excessively cruel to give six of the best. She then frequently used her own judgement , which again could lead to confrontation with other staff who had a rigid view on this. She was a squash player and said she interpreted six of the best as involving substantial extra 'upwards' wrist movement at the last moment , combined with 'gating'the final stroke across the initial five stokes, which she would place more carefully, slowly and closely for maximum effect.

Of the aborted canings , most were aborted because she felt the demeanour and the physiological response of the victim was such as to render further punishment cruel and unnecessary. The lesson had been learned. Normally, she didn't wish to break anyone, preferably take them right to the edge. Obviously it appeared there were exceptions, but that was something she said she didn't want to discuss.

She was more concerned by those aborted for psychological reasons, where the response was 'hysteria' or worse. And the caning had hardly begun , sometimes had never taken place. at all because it was impossible to get the student into a safe position for punishment. This happened mainly with students who were extremely 'hyper' and with whom she could neither talk them down, nor establish a necessary relationship of trust. In these cases she was often unpopular writing home to suggest psychological counselling ( in the 70's- remember Peter Sellars 'What's New Pussycat? Not an untypical parental response to her suggestions!).

As I said you must put this into the context of England in the 70's. Here the usual response, certainly from the men would have been 'cowardice' 'lack of moral fibre' or some similar WWII epithet. Indeed this was the general response of the male staff who caned to all who had 'difficulty' in those days. In time they started to send all those considered ' weak' or 'wimpish' to her on some pretext.

Her final point was that where someone reacted badly, or it was their first time ,she would offer a 'pass' from classes for the rest of the morning/afternoon. , to avoid unwelcome attention. In her view the penalty was the caning , humiliation was superfluous. But she hoped students would be able to refuse the pass.......

Finally I should say for the record her reputation amongst those who were expert in comparing these things, was that she was a hard caner compared to the men , only the Head being equally 'frightening'! Quite surprising given her approach! Except her motto in everything seemed to be 'do it right or not at all!' .

To add a personal note. The school was split between those who found her charming , challenging and charismatic ,and those who saw her as intellectually ferocious and a little frightening. I won't give my opinion as that was formed from contact both in and out of school ( as a musician and later mother of my girlfriend) and would be therefore unfair and unbalanced compared to those who knew her purely professionally as a deputy head.

I hope you find that an interesting historical record. ( oh and yes, I'm not giving the School, or her name if you want to know why please refer to my replies the current string on this topic in that regard).. . .

It has to be understood that most of these types were either sadists or control freaks......

Although there was no caning at the girls school I attended there was plenty of smacking at the front. However I remember one term we had a very young female student teacher who would often call a girl to the front of the class for a well deserved smacking, but then would suddenly change her mind for no apparent reason and send the rather bemused student back to her desk.

However this did not happen all the time. This teacher was very unpredictable. One minute she was very bright and cheerful and the next minute she would be all over you like a cheap suit. This was very unsettling and most students did not know if they were barefoot or on horseback. Eventually she lost the plot completely and had to be escorted out of the classroom by the head prefect and her deputy.

The school rumor mill went into overdrive and there were more stories being peddled than at a Hans Christian Anderson book signing. The situation was finally sorted out and we received another teacher. This new teacher was very strict and took no prisoners. Needless to say the behavior of the class was exemplary from that point on.

Yes this often happened with some of the younger teachers. Some of them did not really know how to administer corporal punishment and it became a bit of a joke. I remember one or two student teachers being escorted out of a classroom by some senior girls who were not even prefects. Most went quietly but some put up a bit of a struggle. Most of my fellow classmates were not too concerned and just went on with whatever they were doing at the time.

I think that it would considered a little strange for senior girls to be allowed to escort a teacher out of the classroom, but then again if that teacher had lost the plot completely then I suppose that they would have had no choice but to act "locum parentis" so to speak.

I do remember once during a hand strapping of some senior girls the gym mistress forgot how many strokes she was administering and some girls got away with 4 across each hand rather than the usual six. But good luck to them.