Eton abandons birch in favour of caning

The evergreen question of corporal punishment for schoolboys has lately come under discussion in Great Britain as the result of the decision of the headmaster of Eton that in the upper school the cane is to be substituted for the birch. – from May 1911.

Eton College, where change as a rule comes slowly, has undergone a revolution in its methods of correction. Few that suffered in the distant days of Dr Keate, who on one occasion flogged the whole school, can have dreamt that ever a time would come when the birch and the swishing-block would be unknown at Eton.

That epoch has not yet arrived, but under the present headmaster, the Rev. the Hon. E. Lyttelton, a notable advance has been made towards the boys’ millennium. The birch has been dispensed with in the upper school.

When punishment is to be inflicted, an ordinary cane is used, though a small birch for refractory conduct is still in vogue with the junior boys. Among the upper boys the consensus of opinion favours the cane. Mr Lyttelton is not a believer in substituting cruelty for punishment, and his methods for obtaining discipline are of a more humane character than those adopted by his predecessors.

The swishing-block is a venerable institution at Eton, that in use until recently having dated back to 1770. Four years ago the relic of so many painful memories was stolen from the headmaster’s room. What became of it remained a mystery. Then it transpired that two boys had broken into the room and lowered the block into a waiting motor car. It is understood they offered to return the relic, but already it had been replaced.  

Cut upon the historic swishing-block were some famous names, those of the Earl of Rosebery, and Lord Curzon of Kedleston among them.

-          As published in Poverty Bay Herald (New Zealand), 19 May 1911.

 

The evergreen question of corporal punishment for schoolboys has lately come under discussion in Great Britain as the result of the decision of the headmaster of Eton that in the upper school the cane is to be substituted for the birch.

In the Daily Telegraph a brisk controversy on the subject took place amongst old Etonians, but their conflicting views are no more helpful to the public than to the boys.

A few years ago the High Master of the Manchester Grammar School introduced the birch as being more humane than the cane, and richer in spiritually corrective value. That opens a region of discussion into which perhaps nobody but a headmaster  or a small boy could enter without the risk of saying something foolish.

One might suppose, however, that there could be no question as to the necessity for corporal punishment for erring boys. But there is a “humanitarian Radical” conscience nowadays.

The Daily News, in a leaderette upon the subject, concluded by wondering “how much longer the teachers of out youth will tolerate a system of education which can only be kept going with the aid of a penal system so abominable and degrading?”

The answer seems easy: just so long as boys continue to be boys. We are afraid however, that the really shrewd answer ought to be: only until the Radicals really get going. Their sloppy sentimentalism is soaking into every corner of the social fabric.

We may yet see the House of Lords – reformed or unreformed – finally dying for the crime of rejecting a Radical Bill for the regeneration of naughty boys by moral suasion alone.

-          As published in Dominion (New Zealand), 18 May 1911.

Picture credit: Unknown

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