Ah, how I miss my carefree pre-adolescent years. I am now 44 years old, married with three children and financially secure.
I grew up in rural Jamaica and attended elementary, primary and high schools there before attending university in the United Kingdom. In Jamaica corporal punishment is a way of life in elementary and primary schools and can be meted out by any class teacher.
At the high school level only the headmaster or headmistress can cane a student and it has to be for some very grave infraction, such as wanton vandalism.
During my entire elementary and primary school years I always had female class teachers who wielded canes or thick leather strops to keep their pupils in line.
For the sake of brevity I will dwell on my experience in Grade 5 from September 1975 to July 1976. After Grade 5 corporal punishment was for me a phenomenon of the past because I was successful in my 11 plus exams and subsequently became a high school studeny.
I entered Grade 5 in September, 1975 at the age of 10. At that time my family comsisted of myself, my sister, a year younger than myself, my diligent mother and my father who lived and worked in the United States as a civil engineer. So for the most part it was my motherm my sister and I.
At school I had a class teacher by the name of Ms. Monica Lawson, then 34 years old, medium weight and about 5 ft 8 inches tall. She kept her cane of discipline dangling from a hook beside the blackboard.
The first three weeks of the term were event free. One Wednesday Ms. Lawson set some Math homework meant to be done and turned in the following morning. On the Thursday morning I forgot to take my Math notebook with the homework. Ms Lawson dutifully gave me six painful strokes of the cane on the palms of my hands.
A few days later I got six strokes of the cane on my hands for talking in class.
As the Christmas vacation approached I became a compulsive overeater--maybe due to stress from the impending 11 plus exams in January of 1976. Anyway, I started eating eight large meals a day. Over the Christmas holidays I ate twice as much, In January 1975 I turned 11 years old, and with the exams looming I could not stop eating. Finally, at the end of January 1976, I confidently sat the 11 plus exams.
After the exams I continued to eat eight large meals a day, but I increased my intake four fold. By January I looked like a Sumo wrestler, and grew to 5 ft 11 inches in height. I was now taller than my teacher.
By April of 1976 I had had gotten an EXTREMELY, huge belly. My belly hung two feet outwards over the waist of my pants. My mother had me stand before a wall so that my navel touched the wall surface. She then measured the space from the wall to the front of my waist. It was 26 inches. I could not get any shirts which could cover my belly so I went to school with only the chest buttons of my shirts done; I was now going to school with my belly exposed. I was able to rest a stack of four books on the top surface of my belly.
Now one day in May, Ms Lawson gave a Math test, This cute girl beside me was having trouble so I decided to rip out some paper and write down the answers and give to her. We were caught in the act by Ms Lawson. She promptly called us up and explained the severity of of our infraction to the class. She the reached for the cane and gave ne six strokes in my belly. The first stroke created a crease by my navel. After she dealt me the last stroke, she stuck the tip of the cane into my navel to stop my belly from quivering and shaking excessively. She then turned to the girl and gave her five strokes on her hands.
Another day I came back to class 20 minutes after the end of lunch time. She then brandished the cane and dealt me 10 strokes of the cane on the front of my belly. My ememies could hardly contain themselves with laughter especially as my belly would jiggle and sway with each impact of the cane.
One Friday I was caught talking in class. Ms. Lawson did have her cane within armsreach so she used her fist. She started by pressing her fist on my navel, then she punched me in my belly four times, with her full might. I could feel her fist inside my stomach.
The canings left scars on my belly,which looked like black stripes.
When I went home in the evenings my mother would tediously apply skin cream on my belly to minimise the appearance of these scars.
In July I learned that I had passed my 11 plus exams and Ms. Lawson congratulated me. As she did so, she would glance at my belly and be transfixed at the scars that she put there.
All the adults in my neighbourhood supported Ms. Lawson and viewed her as a young class teacher successfully keeping her students coralled.
At Christmas 1976 my Mom presented Ms Lawson with a Necchi sewing machime as a gift of gratitude.
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