Memories: Effective discipline was harsh discipline
Although not a big man, his occasional canings were most feared. His cuts were vicious. The story was that, when caning taller boys, he would stand on a chair to get more length to the swing of the cane but this is probably a school myth. – John writes about Penrith High, New South Wales, Australia in the 1950s on the Penrith Memories blog.
School discipline was harsh at Penrith High in the 1950s and the methods used would not be accepted today. The philosophy, shared by teachers, parents and society as a whole, was that effective discipline was hard discipline. Attitudes have certainly changed.
The cane was used frequently. Punishment ranged from one stroke on one
hand to six on each hand. The cane strokes were called ‘cuts’.
Getting the cane on a cold Penrith day was not pleasant and a boy who
took six on each hand without complaint was a hero for a day. The accepted
wisdom was that putting resin on the hand before being caned caused the cane to
slip and not hurt as much but I can state categorically that this was untrue.
At least, the caning was on the hands rather than on the posterior as
was the norm in English public schools.
Girls were not caned.
Subject masters could cane students but did so rarely. The procedure was
that the offending student would be sent to the headmaster or deputy headmaster
with a note outlining the nature of the offence. The head or deputy head would
then determine the number of cuts, on a basis neither just nor rationally
arrived at, and then administer the punishment. Frequent offenders were likely
to get more severely caned.
Some teachers applied their own form of corporal punishment like a clip
over the ears or throwing chalk or pencils at students. One manual arts teacher
was even said to have put a hand of a particularly troublesome student in a
vice and tightened it.
‘Boof’ Graham, an English teacher, had a loveable habit of standing
outside the classroom door as the students filed out and giving a smack across
the back of the head to boys who had misbehaved in class. The culprits accepted
this in good fun and they probably felt that they deserved it.
Nobody seemed to care in those days.
Corporal punishment was banned in all schools in New South Wales in 1995
but it had been discontinued as policy in public schools well before that.
The Headmaster was Hector McGregor, known obviously as Jock. Jock was
very learned, having authored a standard textbook on English pronunciation, and
was well respected by staff and students. The school ran efficiently during his
tenure.
He was a strict disciplinarian but he generally left the corporal punishment
to the Deputy Head. Although not a big man, his occasional canings were most
feared. He was left-handed and his cuts were vicious. The story was that, when
caning taller boys, he would stand on a chair to get more length to the swing
of the cane but this is probably a school myth.
The most common form of punishment was extra school work or detention.
Detention meant staying after school for a given time under the supervision of
a teacher. It was hard to know who was the most bored by this form of punishment
– the offender or the supervising teacher.
An alternative punishment, and a filthy one at that, was cleaning a part
of the school grounds for a given time. Picking up food refuse was not
pleasant. Again, girls did not have to do this, although they could be
sentenced to pick up papers in the schoolyard, as opposed to rotting sandwich
crusts.
Suspension and expulsion were rare.
I would have to say that although a lot of students played up or acted
the fool, there did not seem to be any ‘bad’ students there. There were no
assaults on teachers by students that I remember and while there were plenty of
fights between students, they were schoolboy rough and tumble rather than
violent.
As for the canings, they were painful and embarrassing but whether they
did good or bad is a question for the psychologists.
Picture credit: Unknown
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