Why schools must bring back the cane ...
Here’s a bit of a rant about bringing back the cane to schools from Donna Gee, the self-styled Spain’s Grumpy Old Gran. “I have never come across anyone who was permanently damaged, either physically or mentally, by the after-effects of six of the best. In fact, every victim I’ve spoken to said the experience did them good” – From her website in June 2015.
During my time in junior school, I was petrified of the cane in Mr Coleman’s study. As headmaster, he was the only teacher allowed to dish out punishment to errant 10-year-olds.
I worked hard
to make sure I never crossed him, or any other teacher for that matter. When I
think back, the fear of bamboo on youthful fingers was the biggest
deterrent of all in keeping boisterous pupils on the straight and narrow.
My Dad wasn’t
averse to clipping me around the ear when I stepped out of line at home; indeed
he occasionally whacked me on the back of the head and was promptly ticked off
by my stepmother for overstepping the mark.
“Jack, that’s
dangerous,’’ she’d complain. ‘’If you must hit the child, a smack on the leg is
sufficient.’’
To anyone under
40, the above scenario must sound Dickensian and to some extent it was. But
whilst I was a bit of a naughty kid at home, I made sure I kept on the right
side of the school authorities.
Only once was I
marched to Mr Coleman’s study and that was for stupidly lobbing a lump of coal
onto the school playground. Don’t ask me where the coal came from because I
haven’t a clue.
Mind you, this was
South Wales and at the time I was very much a minor. Anyway, you can imagine
how this cowardly coal-chucker reacted when the headmaster brought out his
cane.
I burst into a
flood of tears and apologies... and literally begged for mercy.
My emotional plea
had the desired effect on Mr C, though I’ll never know if the cane would have
hurt my hand more than his alternative punishment – the exertion of writing by
hand 100 times, ‘I shall not deliver coal to the school playground’.
Even the most
badly-behaved kids I grew up with were angels – compared to the arrogant,
rebellious, knife-carrying yobs of 2015. And I am convinced the appalling
behaviour of so many 21st-century youngsters is rooted in the absence of
physical discipline.
What makes it
worse is that in many cases, the parents of these kids are as bad as their
offspring because they also grew up knowing they could take liberties with
adults with no fear of punishment.
The fear of
physical retribution certainly taught kids of my generation to respect
authority. And you’ll struggle to find anyone over 60 who doesn’t agree with
that sentiment.
I’ve a message
for David Cameron his Commons cronies. Corporal punishment works. And it’s
largely because Britain has abandoned corporal punishment that young yobs and
yobesses run riot everywhere from Manchester to Magaluf.
I have never
come across anyone who was permanently damaged, either physically or mentally,
by the after-effects of six of the best. In fact, every victim I’ve spoken to
said the experience did them good.
But try telling
that to the politically correct dummies of Westminster who decided in 1987 to
outlaw corporal punishment in state-run schools.
The idealists
had a ridiculous conception that they could sit brain-dead Neanderthals on
their knee and talk sense into them.
Instead, we saw
the emergence of a superbreed of yob - the potentially violent rebels whose
behaviour is prompting more and more teachers to turn their backs on the
profession they used to love.
When the cane
was king, the morons didn’t bother going to school. These days they revel in
the opportunity to intimidate the helpless men and women charged with educating
them. With no fear of painful retribution, they bombard their teachers with
insolence and defiance, hoping to push their helpless victim ‘over the top’.
Unless there is
a dramatic turnaround in political attitudes, I despair of the UK escaping the
scourge of the blood-and-plunder demon it has brought on itself.
A scum society
of scallies is running amok while their mothers and fathers enjoy the
pleasantries of a comfortable jail cell or are out of their minds on drink and
drugs. These lowlifes are a tiny minority, yet they are destroying British
society.
They respect
nobody, live off the proceeds of stealing, mugging, drug pushing and benefits
fraud – and even a step up into the gutter is too high a hurdle to jump.
In a country
where the police are not even armed, there is little chance of ridding Britain
of these scumbags, or of educating them.
Personally, I’m
all for establishing a no-nonsense UK Guardia Civil to sort the problem out
Spanish style, by treating the yobs in the only way they understand.
Is there a
realistic solution? I’m sure the ex-policemen and other law enforcers among The
View’s readers will have something to say about that.
But those of
you who grew up in the days when attacks on schoolteachers were unheard of will
probably view the situation the same way as I do. To hell with all this
political correctness. Mr Coleman, your cane is needed. Desperately.
Picture
credit: Brett Stevens.
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