The following is of possible interest to former pupils in UK educational establishments in the years before 1987.
Dear brothers and sisters. Perhaps you may remember, in your younger, more tender self, returning tearfully to your classroom from the office of the head master or mistress, with the flesh of your hands or your nether regions tingling after the vigorous application of a cane. Your crimes or misconduct had been discovered and were now absolved, at least until the next time. All you had to do then was to sit down, smarting painfully, and hope your parents would not learn of your calamity.
I mention this because we are now in the 25th year a quarter of a century after the abolition of corporal punishment in schools in England and Wales. The law that stayed the pedagogues hand was called the 1986 Education (No 2) Act, and it resulted (depending upon your point of view) not only in a more civilised atmosphere in schools but also the end of civilisation as we know it. One can discuss these various matters but I am sure there can be no real debate about another aspect, the accelerating exodus of male teachers from the classroom, some of those males at least, and doubtless plenty of females, who derived secret gratification from hurting children.
The Act (or to be more exact, the statutory instrument) came into force on September 1, 1987, just before the autumn term. It follows thus that the last time in an English or Welsh school that a length of rattan rose and fell legally upon some little trouser-clad bottom, or some interlock cotton-covered girlish seat,was on a day in July, 1987, presumably the last day of the summer term.
Whose bottom would that have been? Might it have been yours? Will you be raising a glass to recall that day? For the rest of us, shall we have a secret toast on September 1? Or is celebration inappropriate?
You say above of the abolition of school CP in England and Wales:
The Act (or to be more exact, the statutory instrument) came into force on September 1, 1987, just before the autumn term. It follows thus that the last time in an English or Welsh school that a length of rattan rose and fell legally upon some little trouser-clad bottom, or some interlock cotton-covered girlish seat,was on a day in July, 1987, presumably the last day of the summer term.
Errm, no, not so! The 1986 legislation which came into force on 1 September 1987 only applied to state schools, private schools with partial state funding, and to publicly funded pupils in private schools. School corporal punishment continued to be legal for several more years in private schools outwith state control. Until 1999 in England and Wales , until 2000 in Scotland, and until 2003 in Northern Ireland.
There is evidence that during that additional period lengths of rattan rose and fell quite legally upon many 'little trouser-clad bottoms' and indeed some not so little ones as well, and quite a few 'interlock cotton-covered girlish seats', with or without an intervening skirt. For instance the famous (or rather notorious) much publicised canings of schoolgirls at The Rodney School, Kirklington, Notts by Ms Joan Thomas which extended into the early 1990s.
While the rumour that in those canings the only intervention between rattan and bottom was 'rice paper thin' white cotton PE shorts is probably untrue, it is certainly the case that boys and girls were caned at Rodney School, and at other schools in England and Wales, in the 1990s.
Corsair
a qualified anniversary then
April 17 2012, 8:50 PM
umm, yes, you are quite right AL, unfortunately ... those beastly public school oiks keep getting in the way. But for those of us at state schools, September 1 remains a little anniversary
at least the toast can still be (what else?) Bottoms Up!
ukshaver001
Well I may have been one of them
April 17 2012, 9:12 PM
Having been proviledged to attend one of the fee paying schools in the land of north of the border... and not being one of the best behaved laddies who ever attended the establishment... I would simply like to say that stumbling upon this forum and this nice reminder of dates has been a great trip down memory lane....
Discussed the topic many a time with the good lady wife...a true cockney !! - we are definitely in favour of some form of sanction being returned to schools. Even if it was only to keep those poor state funded scallywags in their rightful place - across jolly old heads desk !!
In a slightly more serious tone.....yes we do talk a lot about it... we do agree that there should be something allowed to be a deterrant... What the hell will a suspension or a talking to do to a school bully. They inflict mental and physical pain on some poor other child and know that nothing will be done back ?
Maybe some of the errant ways that I indulged in were not quite "bad" enough to
have resulted in the bum clenching shuffle to the boys lavs to mop my tears... but I knew the rules when I broke them.
I plan to lurke a while longer here.... thanks all for the reminders.
(currently shuffling buttocks in chair with memories on the inability to sit on hard woodedn chairs...)
Spelling incorrect....darn thats another punishment
April 17 2012, 9:15 PM
Just realised that this damned cheap keyboard cannot spell !!!
Another_Lurker
Re: Happy Anniversary?
April 18 2012, 1:31 AM
Hi Corsair,
You say above:
unfortunately ... those beastly public school oiks keep getting in the way.
Dreadful, isn't it! This estimable Forum is absolutely infested with them! There's that awful argumentative and combative Another_Lurker, the not quite so awful but equally argumentative and combative Prof.n, the Australian contingent, and several more besides. I really don't know why the Forum Management allow it!
Seriously, if we define Public Schools by the usual criteria of membership of The Headmasters' Conference, HMC, now The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, then English and Welsh Public Schools were by no means the worst offenders when it came to retaining the cane after the abolition of CP in State Schools.
My own Alma Mater abandoned caning in the mid 1960s a few years after I left. First the Prefects' Court, which was permitted to sentence to and administer up to three strokes of the cane, voted to abolish its own privilege, then the Headmaster, who had never been an enthusiastic caner throughout my time there, decided to follow suite. Prof.n's school abandoned caning in, I think, the 1970s (my apologies if I have this wrong, Prof.n). According to this Wikipedia article the last caning at Eaton was in January 1984.
Rather than the Public Schools it was the smaller Independent Private Schools and Religious Schools which retained the cane the longest. An interesting article entitled 'Corporal punishment: Where to send your children to school if you want them beaten' was published in the Sunday, May 1st 1994 edition of The Independent on Sunday. This names four schools, including Rodney School, where the reporter believed pupils had been caned recently. The schools are referred to as Public Schools, but I don't believe, on the strict definition, that any of them were. My apologies to ex-pupils, and to the schools if still in existence (Rodney School is closed) if I am mistaken, but I don't think I am.
The actual newspaper archive linked above is rather slow to load, at least on my system. The article can also be found here on the excellent (and fast to load) Corpun.Com site. The page concerned, the May 1994 archive page, also has and article from The Observer of 1st May 1994 on canes and caning.
