Caning the older schoolboy
“I ask you parents do you think it right that your big son of say 15 or 16 should be thrashed before the whole school?”
(Letter to Auckland Star, New Zealand, 1 April
1924.)
Sir, – I would
like to make a protest in regard to the system of punishment practised upon
boys in secondary schools. In the primary schools usually the children are
punished upon the hand with a strap or cane. In the secondary schools, however,
the boys are made to bend over a form and the punishment is applied upon a part
which need not be named.
Now, if this latter form of punishment was practised
upon the young children of primary schools, it would be more in keeping with
their age and understanding, but to use
it upon big boys of from fourteen years upwards, who are, or should be,
attaining a little dignity and understanding of things, is, to my mind
unnecessarily degrading and hurtful to the boys’ feelings.
If the idea is to so hurt the boys’ feelings by the manner of the
punishment that he will not again transgress, then the system cannot be too
much condemned. I ask you parents do you think it right that your big son of
say 15 or 16 should be thrashed before the whole school in this lowering
manner. Well that is what happens for very small transgressions. Do you not
think it would be better if your boy were thrashed upon his hands, which would
be sufficiently severe and would allow him to retain his manliness. I think it
is a contemptible action on the part of the authorities that this lowering form
of punishment is allowed to continue.
I am etc. A PARENT
(A letter in response, Auckland Star, New
Zealand, 5 April 1924.)
Sir, – In reply to “Parent’s” letter, I beg to give my
views on the subject of corporal punishment in secondary schools. First let me
say that many of the statements given by him are not in accordance with the
facts.
For instance, it is stated that boys of our secondary
schools are thrashed before the assembled scholars of the whole college for the
most trivial offences. These statements are too general. In one of our schools
at least, such a thing has not happened for many years.
“Parent” writes as though caning were the only form of
punishment. As a matter of fact, it is only for graver offences, as a rule that
the cane is used at all, imposition or keeping in being usually resorted to.
Again, ask the boys where they prefer to be caned, on
the hands or elsewhere. They would scorn being caned on the hands as childish.
In the public schools of England boys are punished, and have been punished ever
since “Tom Brown’s Schooldays,” just as they are punished in Auckland today.
The least “Parent” can do is not to implicate schools
which do not adopt the method of thrashing the boys before the whole school, by
such general statements as were employed.
I am, etc. CONCERNED
Picture credit: CP Services, London.
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