Punishment Book: He brought pistol to school
Old school punishment books, where incidents of the use of
corporal punishment are recorded, seem to fascinate many and various examples
have been kept and shared for posterity.
One such is from Merchant Taylors, Merseyside, UK.
The Alumni Network posted a find online:
The
title on the cover of this volume is ‘Black Book’. Although rebound in 1927, it
lists all the cases of corporal punishment and some detentions from 1895 to
1971. The crimes for which the punishments were given range from the expected
“idleness” and “bad work”, which in the early twentieth century could qualify
for caning, to “bringing a catapult into school” and the more worrying
“bringing a pistol into school”, There are also the more esoteric crimes such
as “doing Euclid in Algebra class” and “Fixing the Day”. One boy was beaten in
Canon Armour’s time “For Humbug, pretending to be unwell.”
There
are even signs of parental support. One boy was caught “Forging a note re
absence. Father disowned the note and committed boy to my [Canon Armour’s]
discipline.” Whereas most punishments are given as “caned”, this boy was
“flogged”!
When
the number of strokes of the cane is recorded, the average would seem to be
about four but the standard “six of the best” appears on several occasions. The
highest number of strokes awarded on a single occasion is listed as 12 in 1925.
This was in reprisal for “Breaking open a master’s desk from which money was
taken”.
Picture
credit: Generated by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
Traditionalschooldiscipline@gmail.com
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