It’s the waiting ...
What can a boy do when he knows he is in for a
whacking later in the day but has hours to wait before his rendezvous with the
rod?
It won’t surprise you to know that Gerva D’Olbert
tackled this very situation in his book Chastisement
Across The Ages (The Fortune Press, 1956).
Sometimes a boy will steel himself in anticipation of the rod by means of a deliberate psychological effort, a kind of yoga – detachment almost. Thus one spirited youngster who received five heavy stripes for throwing an ink-pot at a comrade, stated (and why doubt his sincerity?) that, by means of great concentration and detachment of will, he scarcely even felt the strokes, although their physical impress was to remain for three-and-a-half weeks. Such cases are, of course, exceptional, and we must not rely on them for generalisations.
But the problem of the anticipation of the rod,
with its consequent steeling of the nerves in strong natures and the weakening of
them in more sensitive minds, is a very profound one.
Blasquat reports a lad as having confessed to him how,
being sentenced at the beginning of the school-hour to a thrashing which he
knew would be severe, he experienced such a crescendo of fear while the
lesson was drawing to its close, that when at last he received his thrashing –
and it was even severer than he had anticipated – it came almost as a relief.
Other psychologists have reported the same process.
Thus we see that sometimes anticipation will steel the nerves so that the
actual punishment is scarcely felt, while in other cases the nerves will be so
agitated as to make the punishment itself almost a catharsis. Probably
the good majority of lads find themselves taking a middle course between these
two unusual extremes.
Naturally, in all these cases the victim will not
protest while being corrected. And the average boy, if in good health, will not
cry out even if he is severely hurt: this, at least, is our English custom of
restraint and understatement. Possibly in some lands vociferation is even demanded
from the victim.
Thus, a Bavarian school has been reported in which it
was the observed custom for the master to begin by brandishing the cane, to
which the prospective victim replied with gestures of pleadings, all of which
were of no avail; during the actual infliction, it was traditional once more to
emit exaggerated cries, far exceeding the natural reaction for whatever pain
was being administered. But there are undoubtedly occasions when the protest is
not exaggerated.
An English schoolboy of a sensitive yet mischievous
type once told the author how, being sentenced to a dozen strokes, he duly
received the first six, which caused him such extreme pain that he arose as
swiftly as his condition permitted, and, addressing his master, promised
eternal good conduct if the remaining six were cancelled. A slight smile
trembled on the usher’s lips: “I call that blackmail,” he said, and administered
a further six – plus two extra for attempted blackmail.
Picture credit: Jonathan
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