Teachers’ sarcasm is worse than cane, says professor

The headmaster of a private school claimed that a few smart strokes on the bottom induced a general feeling of bonhomie – a debate on corporal punishment heats up in a Sydney, Australia newspaper in 1962.

Cruel words worse than cane

Professor says scars last longer 

A Sydney professor of psychiatry said this week that verbal sadism could scar school children worse than the cane. 

Patients undergoing psychiatric treatment in later life, he said, remembered the shame and ridicule inflicted on them by teachers with cruel words, more than with a cane. 

The professor is Dr David Maddison, Professor of Psychiatry at Sydney University. Professor Maddison added “On the other hand, corporal punishment can awaken violent instincts in the child. 

“It can also brutalise the teacher, who may even grow to enjoy it. 

“Frequent beatings defeat their own purpose. The boy who is often caned enjoys a sort of martyrdom, and becomes a hero to his class mates.” 

Professor Maddison was commenting on this week’s controversy in the correspondence columns of The Sydney Morning Herald on corporal punishment in schools. 

“Barbarous” 

Several parents claimed that their children’s fingers were damaged by the “barbarous fashion” of caning on the hands, and called for a return to beating on the buttocks. 

They were supported by the headmaster of a private school, who claimed that “a few smart strokes on the bottom” induced a general feeling of bonhomie. 

A Turramurra man who left school in 1899, said modern parents talked “a lot of sentimental drivel” about their children. 

He had frequently been beaten at school, and was none the worse for it. 

A Mosman parent said any type of physical punishment caused deep-seated resentment which never abated, and could turn a child into a flogger or advocate of flogging in later life. 

Ridicule 

In departmental schools, children may be caned only on the hands. Private schools use their own discretion, but caning on the buttocks is not uncommon. 

“I take an in-between stand on the whole question of corporal punishment,” Professor Maddison, told The Sun-Herald. 

“Much worse things happen in schools than caning. 

“People forget there are much more subtle forms of punishment, which have longer-lasting effects. 

“Adults under psychiatric treatment still look back with horror and apprehension on situations where they were shamed, ridiculed, isolated from their fellows, or made to feel ‘babies’ in front of a class. 

“A teacher can draw out this form of punishment for a long time.” 

A spokesman for the N. S.W. [New South Wales] Teachers’ Federation said while there was no control over private schools, in departmental schools, no girl over 12 could be caned, and boys could be struck only on the hands.

A boy could be caned only by the headmaster, or a master nominated by him, usually a senior subject master. 

“A class teacher cannot use a cane as and when he likes,” the spokesman said. 

“If he uses it at all it must be in the presence of a headmaster or a senior teacher. All canings are entered in a punishment book, which is examined by the school inspector on his visits.” 

The Director of School Medical Services for the Department of Education, Dr N. S. Solomons, said canings were extremely rare in modern education. It was better that a child should be hit on the hands, as the only damage likely to occur was a little bruising. 

A teacher caning a child across the buttocks could hit harder and do more damage. 

Confining “cuts” to the hands meant much stricter control over corporal punishment and lessened the chance of indiscriminate hitting out. 

As published in Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 25 November 1962.

Picture credit: Hotspur.

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