How far was corporal punishment used in schools since the Second world War? Was there more of a tendency for its use in state secondary modern schools rather than grammar in the post 1944 school structure. Traditionally it was used in boys public (HMC) schools up to the 1970's when it was gradually phased out. How widespread was its use in major girls independent schools or was it assumed young ladies knew how to behave? There is a tradition, perhaps unfounded, or exagerated, that it was used a lot in convent schools.

Hi statitician (sic). Since you mention HMC schools I'll assume your queries relate to the UK. You ask:

1. How far was corporal punishment used in schools since the Second world War?   Extensively, and in a few cases right up to the various abolition dates.
   
   
2. Was there more of a tendency for its use in state secondary modern schools rather than grammar in the post 1944 school structure?   Yes, that appears to be the case.
   
   
3. How widespread was its use in major girls independent schools?   Not very, on the basis of available evidence.
   
   
4. There is a tradition, perhaps unfounded, or exagerated, that it was used a lot in convent schools.   I suspect that this tradition probably has factual foundations, but I am not personally qualified to comment on this.

There we are, that's got you started. Your thread will now be subject to an absolute deluge of replies!

I think that A-L is sound, as usual, with his observation that corporal punishment was not very common at girls' independent schools. But I've also been intrigued by what may (or may not) have happened at convent schools in the second half of the twentieth century. Certainly there are famous accounts from women who attended convent schools some time ago--Sue Arnold, Hayley Mills--testifying to the cp they received back in the 1960s. So partly, I suspect, it's a question of how far you go back: it was probably quite common in the 1950s, declining gradually in the 1960s and 1970s, and then becoming increasingly rare in the 1980s and 1990s.

Interestingly, though, the recent official report on physical abuse in church schools in Ireland during the 20th century lamented how girls were hit "on every part of their body." Personally, I'm not in favour of these kinds of retrospective apologies, which actually seem to me a curious form of self-flagellation in the way they put the blame on teachers for things that weren't illegal or even unusual at the time, however abusive or bizarre they may appear to us in these greatly changed times. Of course, I'm not in favour of reintroducing cp, in covent schools or anywhere else--except in the bedroom!--but I think that possibly too much is made of the harm that was inflicted. There are many types of harm, after all, and economic or emotional deprivation is usually much worse than transitory physical pain.

I also think it's true that parochial (i.e. Catholic) schools in America were using the ruler and the paddle on girls until quite recently, and that its use in the USA may actually have gone on longer than in convent schools in the UK. The American writer Susie Bright, in in her essay "Story of O Birthday Party" from her excellent book "Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader", talks of seeing at a sex party a "paddle board like Sister Teresa used on our fifth grade class," adding: "I was a goody two shoes and never felt that paddle on my butt. Now I had a perverse desire to get it."

Does anyone have any direct experience from convent schools on this side of the water?

hi statiticion, i know a convent school near where i live where the strap was used, as girls who went there told me about it. and also one girls mother also confirmed that it was still in use.this was in the seventies and late 80s.