Boys get ten strokes for not spelling ‘meringue’

A 21-year-old schoolteacher ended up in court after he gave two boys 10 strokes of the cane because they couldn’t spell “meringue.” In the dock, he faltered when asked to spell the word himself.

M-E-R-I-N-G-U-E

A TEACHER BEATS IT OUT WITH A CANE ON THE BOYS WHO COULDN'T SPELL

TO the rhythmic letter-by-letter spelling of the word m-e-r-i-n-g-u-e, a music teacher gave two boys eight of the best.

Then he added two more strokes to the accompaniment of “spells meringue” to ram the lesson home.

The boys who were caned for having misspelt the word wanted to stage a sit-down strike. But they couldn’t sit down.

So instead they told their parents, who called a doctor and a policeman.

As a result, the music master, 21-year-old Anthony Heap, who also teaches English. was summoned for unlawful assault.

BLUSHED

He faced Southampton magistrates yesterday and made a mistake himself as he demonstrated how he spelled out that word.

Heap said, “M-e-r-n ..” before blushingly correcting himself. He explained how he had written that word on the blackboard and told his class at Weston Park modern school. Southampton, that he would test them on it later.

When he did so, 12-year-old Tommy Hughes couldn’t answer at all.  And 13-year-old Martin Garney could get only as far as m-e-r.

Both were called out in front of the class and told to bend over for punishment.

‘LIGHT-HEARTED’

Martin told the court yesterday: “Tommy cried at about the sixth stroke; I cried near the end.”

Dr. John Price said that Tommy had surface bruises over a 3½ in. area, and there were red marks on Martin.

Mr. Bernard Chill, for the boys, asked Heap: “Why spell this word on their bottoms?”

Heap: “Because they had not taken very much trouble to learn it.”

Chill: “It was a beating?” – “It was a comparatively light tapping.”

Chill: “Tapping knowledge into boys was not recommended at your training college?” – “No. It was a light-hearted, novel way of doing it.”

Heap. of Danes-road, Awbridge, Hants. was conditionally discharged on payment of 20 guineas costs.

Tommy’s mother said afterwards: “We were shocked that our boys were caned so much over that word. None of us parents could spell it. I had to look it up in a cookery book.”

As published in The Daily Herald, 09 May 1962.

Picture credit: Damian Simons.

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