Six of the best reduced to two for Essex boys

News in 1939 that Essex schoolchildren may not receive more than two strokes of the cane prompted this piece of verse in one of Britain’s best-selling daily newspapers of the time.

SIX INTO TWO

So gentle is the Essex child,

So unlike father, who was wild,

That TWO strokes with a cane suffice

To wean him from scholastic vice,

This Progress marks these days from those

When little Bertie touched his toes,

And had impressed upon his mind,

With half a dozen from behind,

His crime. But is economy

The blessing it appears to be?

Let’s only hope for Bertie’s sake

That masters will not learn to make

As much of two, with canes or sticks,

As in the past they did with six.

By F. G. H. Salusbury

 

As published in the Daily Herald, 26 July 1939

Picture credit: British-Discipline

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