Should bad lads be caned ...?
During fifteen years I cannot recall one case where a thrashing deserved and judiciously administered, caused resentment or inhibition. In any case, the majority of teachers would punish mainly in order to maintain the conditions necessary for the fulfilment of their responsibilities. This means, of course, dealing severely with the young thug. “Six of the best” usually works wonders with this type of boy. – a “schoolmaster” wrote in the Halifax (UK) Evening Courier in 1952.
HUNDREDS of youths of school age, and slightly over school age, are responsible for crimes of violence. Of all convicted criminals, 40 per cent are under seventeen. Over half of these are fourteen or under.
The 1948 Criminal Justice Act, which prevents them
from being spanked, is under heavy fire. Two M.P.s have tabled a motion urging
the Government to repeal that section of the Act which abolished corporal
punishment for acts of violence.
They want the Government to restore to courts the
power to impose punishment by birching.
Can the school play a part in the suppression of these
crimes? No schoolmaster today wants to thrash a boy just for the sake of
thrashing. But all too often his hands are so tied by regulations that he can
give no effective punishment at all.
Many boys turn readily to violence because they have
never felt the stick.
RECENTLY a headmaster was
censured for caning a naughty boy. Apparently, the boy was a constant nuisance
on the buses when returning home. Now he is forbidden to ride on these buses,
but local authority has provided him with a bicycle !!
The London County Council is now issuing a booklet to
all its teachers. This says that naughty children must not be caned, must not
kept in after school, must not be made to stand in corners. Sarcasm, too is
forbidden; it causes inhibitions.
Many other well-meaning but woolly minded councils are
responsible for similar punishment regulations.
It is an interesting fact that those actively
concerned with children disapprove of these ideas. Most judges favour the
reintroduction of birching. Most schoolmasters favour the retention of the
cane.
An educational survey of rewards and punishments in
schools showed this year that 90 per cent of practising schoolmasters favoured
the retention of corporal punishment. This would be used as a last resort on
hard cases.
During my fifteen years of schoolmastering, I cannot
recall one case where a thrashing deserved and judiciously administered, caused
resentment or inhibition. In any case, the majority of teachers would punish
mainly in order to maintain the conditions necessary for the fulfilment of
their responsibilities. This means, of course, dealing severely with the young
thug. “Six of the best” usually works wonders with this type of boy.
I HAVE experience too of
the other type of case. Cases where “progressive” but woolly minded heads or
officials have not administered deserved beatings. These children often grow up
into nuisances, not only to themselves but to the community at large. Later in
life, they found they had to acquire certain disciplines which most children
quickly acquire in childhood. Some failed to acquire these at all and became
more than nuisances.
DURING the last forty
years crimes of violence in which juveniles are involved have more than
trebled. Yet since 1948 the skin of any one of them has been sacred. Of every
hundred found guilty, 69 are either set free or put on probation, 17 are fined.
While 14 only end up in Approved Schools or Borstal.
Parents, schools and juvenile courts could together
stop most of the rot. Examples may be the best cure, but “six of the best” at
the right time in the right place, for the right offence would do a lot to help
As published in the Halifax Evening
Courier 03 December 1952.
Picture credit: Brett Stevens.
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