When strap, cane and dunce’s cap, kept order
A museum exhibition in 1952 details rules (complete with helpful illustrations), which laid down for teachers and pupils the strict methods of discipline to be applied in Paris schools. Those who transgressed were soundly beaten.
THE
“GOOD OLD SCHOOLDAYS”
Strap,
cane, dunce’s cap, kept order
By
Jean Bloch-Michel (Unesco)
CHILDREN of to-day have little to complain about on
the score of severe discipline. Had they been scholars a hundred years ago,
they would have found things very different.
The comparison has been vividly demonstrated by an
exhibition at the Museum of Pedagogy in Paris – “A Century of Teaching, seen in
Caricatures and Images.” A boy studying in Paris in 1817 would have had all the
benefits of a manual of rules which were officially described as “The Perfected
Methods Authorised by the Royal University of France.”
These rules (complete with helpful illustrations),
which laid down for teachers and pupils the strict methods of discipline to be
applied in Paris schools, were condensed into military style orders. Those who
transgressed were soundly beaten.
Everything was done by command: “Take off ... hats!” Hang up ... hats!” “Enter ...
classroom!” “Hands on ... tables!” “Clean ... slates!” “Present ... slates!”
“Present ... pencils!” “Begin!” Such were the “perfected” disciplinary methods.
Punishment, as the exhibition shows, was given an
unbelievable importance, each offence having its ordained penalty, each
offender his distinguishing badge of shame.
Retribution was meted out with strap and cane, while
the dunce’s cap or ribbons attached to belt or shoulder were used so all could
see the nature of the infamy: red ribbons for lairs, green and yellow for those
who behaved badly, brown for everyday faults, green, black and brown for poor
work or inattention.
The mania for order even drove schools to draw up
statistics of punishments inflicted. One table of 35 columns that has been
preserved records the number of beatings with sticks or cane, of impositions of
kneelings at the pillory which unhappy children in the Indre-et-Loire
Department of France received during the school year 1835-36.
Extracted from Halifax Evening Courier, 03
May 1952.
Picture credit: Kernled.
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