How did the now banned practice of caning (Corporal Punishment) work in schools in the UK before 1986?

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Dyrenforth@reddit

No permission was required. You were sent to the Headmaster's study and had the cane, usually on the palm of your hand. It never happened to me but there were three of four lads who were regular recipients.

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urbanworm@reddit

Yeah, primary school in the mid 70s. You’d get sent to the headmasters office, have to wait outside and then a cane on the palm of the hand, then back to class.

It wasn’t used quite as much as others have said here in their schools, but I can confirm it ‘was’ an effective deterrent against pushing our luck.

I suspect our school was pretty easy going, I only remember it being dished out when the teachers told us specifically to not do something and the rules were broken.

A contrast to my daughters high school where they have 5 different scales of punishment that are used on the kids every 30 secs ranging from a verbal yellow card to a 10 min ‘detention’ (whoo).

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Glittering_Goblin@reddit

Identical experience here, Scotland, bog standard primary school

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Midnightraven3@reddit

Also Scotland here. The belt was used in our school. You had to stand at the front of the class, arms outstretched, palms upwards. No one wanted to cry in front of everyone, and after it was done people asked to see the marks on their hands as they could only strike hands, not wrists. I never knew what happened if they did

The middle one here was what our school had, no permission was needed, and if children went home and said they had got the belt, they then got punished again by their parents for misbehaving.

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Alternative-Iron4103@reddit

Same for me, although I think I only got the belt in secondary school. The old word for these was the Tawse

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ApprehensiveYam9631@reddit

I started primary in 1975. Corporal punishment in schools was banned in 1982 (Scotland). I received the belt twice in primary.

The first time was “six of the belt” arms out, palms upwards and rattled across the palms by a strap of leather (middle in photo above). It stung like hell. Second time was for standing next to a classmate who was trying to attract the attention of his sister I’ve the fence at afternoon break (she was in infants [primary 1-3] and they got home half a hour earlier. Classmate’s sister doesn’t hear him, so he picks up a big shard of perspex and lobbed it over the fence where it promptly (and predictably) hits her on the noghin. Blood everywhere!

Cue being summoned to the front of the class. I protested my innocence to no avail and had ten of the belt. A couple of them caught my wrist which came up in a purple welt.

There were also two other memorable incidents, one horrible and one the most inventive punishment that it bordered on genius.

First one was Primary 5, for whatever reason the teacher had me at the front of the class and was berating me loudly while poking me on the breastbone with her index finger. The fingernail was filed to a point and it broke the skin and I was bleeding through my shirt.

The second time, five of us were making occasional popping noises to annoy everyone while doing a test or something. We thought we’d gotten away with it because we were all sneaky geniuses!

As soon as the test finished, the teacher called all our names, saying “front and centre”

She sent one of us into the supply cupboard to get the record player and another to get a crate of records. She selected a record and said, “since you’re all feeling so musical, you can entertain the whole class.” She instructed us to play along with the record by slapping our own cheeks with our mouths open to the tune of the record.

She then put on the William Tell Overture and we tried to “play” along. Our cheeks were red raw by the end and we’d missed a huge amount of the time through laughing along with our audience. To be fair, we got a great round of applause!

The banning of corporal punishment in schools was announced towards the end of primary 7, just as we were to transition to secondary school.

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MadamKitsune@reddit

My SO used to get caned across the hands by the headmaster quite regularly. Apparently the head had it down to a fine art where he could cane you across the palm on the downward swing and then smack you across the knuckles with the upward swing.

It didn't seem to deter anyone so who got the benefit out of it was questionable.

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Cha_r_ley@reddit

My mum was caned multiple times because she was left handed and went to Catholic school. It had what I imagine was NOT the desired outcome of making her abandon Catholicism almost entirely as an adult.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

You're the second person I've seen say that, in this thread. Fucking mental to be in denial about kids being left handed. Did they think it was the devil making her do it and the cane would make her ignore him and become right handed all of a sudden?

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Lammtarra95@reddit

mental to be in denial about kids being left handed. Did they think it was the devil making her do it

Actually there was a very good reason for left-handed children to write with their right hands back in the days of quill pens and then fountain pens which used liquid ink. Think about how we write. Left-handed children would drag their hands through what they'd just written and get ink all over their hands and possibly clothing.

So no, nothing to do with the devil.

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Cha_r_ley@reddit

I mean there were definitely superstitions about left handedness, hence the word “sinister” having its current meaning. There were practical reasons too as you said - but my mum told me one of the activities that resulted in her getting the cane was sewing. She got caned if she did it left-handed and also got caned when she struggled to do it right-handed as they forced her to - so no ink smearing there.

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Lammtarra95@reddit

Yes there were superstitions but that is not to say they were the cause. To take another example, mentally ill people were once thought to be possessed, hence exorcisms, but that is not why doctors prescribe antipsychotic drugs.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

I know that, I went to school with a couple of left handed kids, although they never got thrashed.

I broke my right arm, had a pot on for 6 weeks, it was weak as piss for ages after that. I genuinely could not learn to write legibly with my left, it was absolute shite 😂

Surely the reverse would be true for some lefties, they'll never be able to write with their right, etc?

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Cha_r_ley@reddit

Left handedness was inherently associated with the devil. The reason the word “sinister” has its modern meaning is because it’s the Latin for “left”. It’s bizarre. I’m just trying to imagine how a grown adult could hit a child with a stick because they’re left handed. Seems far more evil to be the person who batters a kid with a stick if you ask me, but OKAY.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

Absolutely, evil, yes. Imagine the kind of folk that profession attracted, like some of them were likely just in it to get off on hitting vulnerable kids. Truly evil.

The other comment I saw, the person grew up poor, so they got the ruler for not having shiny shoes. They also got it for not having blue underwear on 🤷‍♂️ Actual inspections, by a catholic school, checking little boys and girls underwear 😡

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theawesomepurple@reddit

I was in school in the 1970’s. It didn’t happen at all in our school thankfully but it did in the next borough over. I was friends with people who experienced it. The fear of misbehaving controlled the majority. I felt exceptionally sorry for those punished for things they couldn’t control (autism and adhd).

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markedmo@reddit

I was at private school in the 90s, never saw the cane.

But I did see metre ruler hit across knuckles, lots of heads knocked together in the playground and one memorable occasion a 7 year old kid picked up by his sideburns (such as they are on a 7 year old - I acknowledge it was probably his head being squeezed that was the lift apparatus but the sideburns were pulled so it looked like that).

Also once saw a kid made to eat his own vomit - it was macaroni cheese, he threw it up back into his plate, dinner lady told him to eat up and didn’t believe us 5 year olds when we said it was sick. He did a mouthful then threw up a lot more all over the place and then she believed it.

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LibraryOfFoxes@reddit

I remember being forced to eat a boiled egg at school in the early 80s, I'd eaten everything else on the plate but didn't like boiled eggs. I was taken into the headteacher's office and she made me stand in front of her and eat it. I then promptly brought it back up all over her desk. I wasn't made to eat another one after that, and I still don't like boiled eggs.

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Major_Bag_8720@reddit

I was at a private school in the 70s and 80s. Never saw the cane either, but other forms of physical violence from teachers was fairly common. Smack round the head, heavy wooden board rubber bounced off the head, wooden meter rule across the knuckles as you say.

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SnooHabits8484@reddit

Very very easy to break finger bones with a metre rule.

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No_Snow_8746@reddit

Dinner bitch should have been made to drink the results.

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PhillyDeeez@reddit

I was at primary school in the 90s, and although the cane was obviously never around then, the same sadistic fucks that used it were. I was repeatedly bullied by a certain teacher which came to a head when they physically lifted up and chucked into a bin in the classroom and made to stay there.

I was removed from the school by my parents not long after they found out. Happily, he died a miserable death.

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CurrentResolution626@reddit

Danmm, that’s horrendous

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NixKTM@reddit

Got the cane a few times, first offence was across the hands, second offence across your arse cheeks, teachers back then were some sadistic bastards who took great joy in handing out corporal punishment.

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ross-hori@reddit

Had a teacher in the early 80s who was somewhat fond of giving a slipper on the backside.

It stopped when one of the parents shouted at him in the street. I think by then the idea of grown men smacking young boys and girls on the bottom was starting to seem a bit creepy.

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ResplendentBear@reddit

I started school in 85, never even saw a cane. And it wasn't talked about either. No teacher ever said "gosh darn, 4 years ago I could have beaten you bloody with a stick, but now I can only give you detention."

I’m assuming that the practice didn’t end bang on 1986.

I think it's more the other way round. In most places it ended way before that. Possibly at St. Wankerstone's Academy for Future Investment Bankers it carried on until the 80s, but not most places.

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Steampunk_Dali@reddit

You're forgetting about Catholic schools. We had the cane/ruler/plimsoll even when I left primary school in the mid-80s.

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MrsKToBe@reddit

I left a Catholic primary school in 1992 and we had one teacher who loved to slap kids around for the least little thing. I know my parents spoke to her on more than one occasion about it. She went too far I think (not with me) on one occasion with someone whose parent was a police officer and she was made to retire after that. But when I went to secondary school there was nothing like that (also Catholic school)

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EsotericSnail@reddit

Ah, I was wondering why my experience was different than others here. I was born in 71. Went to Catholic schools. I was hit on the hand with a ruler by a nun. I was never caned, but I was aware of the cane.

My dad was a schoolteacher and sometimes left school supplies catalogues lying around our house As well as chalks and board rubbers and scales and educational posters there were also a selection of canes for sale.

The school didn’t ask parental permission before hitting pupils. The very idea is a modern one and would never have occurred to anyone in the 70s and 80s, neither teachers nor parents. It was assumed that the pupils’ parents also used corporal punishment at home. My parents smacked me on the arm, bottom, and legs.

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seefroo@reddit

There was a big European court case in 1982 which led to it rapidly felling out of favour from then. Suddenly parents could object to their children receiving corporal punishment, and although the schools didn’t stop doing it due to any moral or legal duty it did make the administration a lot harder. In other words they had to actually record whose parents objected to it and whose parents didn’t, and it was far easier to play it safe and just stop assaulting everyone.

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ButtweyBiscuitBass@reddit

Every time I read anything about how children used to be treated in the past I am horrified. Especially as the mother of young children. It's crazy that 50 years ago that everyone looked at children equally beautiful, sensitive and shaped by their experiences as mine and thought - it's only the paperwork that's stopping me from hitting them with a stick.

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TheDisapprovingBrit@reddit

For added fun, autism, ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions weren't yet recognised, hence why the older generation love to say shit like "In my day they'd have been given the cane and they'd soon learn to behave." No, Derek, they just learned that violence was an acceptable reaction to things you don't like.

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dan_gleebals@reddit

They were in special schools so I doubt they got the cane.

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Miserable_Bug_5671@reddit

I (autism and ADHD) wasn't in a special school and I got caned all the time, even thought I was never naughty. Just an accumulation of minor infections every week.

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spinningdice@reddit

"special schools" of the time were for kids thought incapable of being educated. Certainly not pleasant places to be.

There's also a wide swathe of neurodivergent people who either make it through standard schools, and I suspect there were a large number that just didn't make it to adulthood or ended up in prison.

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ImmediatePiano6690@reddit

hence why the older generation love to say shit like "In my day they'd have been given the cane and they'd soon learn to behave." No, Derek, they just learned that violence was an acceptable reaction to things you don't like.

Problem here is we've now gone to the other side of the scale, now many learn they can get away with antisocial behaviour because there's no real consequences and when there are any they just kick off until they get what they want.

We spend an absolute fortune on just letting them grow up without any effective mental focusing, mind you that can be put down partly due to the system not having ways to utilise these mentalities effectively.

We really need to find a way to create middle ground essentially, because they're not problems and can be beneficial instead.

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SnooHabits8484@reddit

My mum was caned on her first day of school, aged 4.

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ButtweyBiscuitBass@reddit

Imagine that, your very first contact with an institution outside your family and the very first thing you learn is that they will hurt you

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alan_alien@reddit

That last line almost made me spit out my coffee

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arpw@reddit

See you in Strasbourg!

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Yorkshirerows@reddit

Don't you hate it when admin gets in the way of child abuse!

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EyeAware3519@reddit

"No teacher ever said "gosh darn, 4 years ago I could have beaten you bloody with a stick, but now I can only give you detention.""

Teachers would say that all the time in my school in the late 80s and early 90s.

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KrytenLister@reddit

I started school a few years after you and we definitely had a couple of older teachers you could tell missed the days where they could.

One older woman would sneak up behind you and whack you on the head with her pen if you were chatting. Doesn’t sound all that bad, but stung like fuck.

Another would hit your desk with a ruler unnecessarily hard while shouting.

I’m sure they’d both have cracked out the cane if they were still allowed to.

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Altruistic_Cress_700@reddit

Out head of Maths threw a board rubber (the big wooden things) at a bit who didn't shut up in 1989 or 90. But I suspect he knew he could do it because the boy was the son of another teacher.

Years later, when the headmaster who was head over this transition wrote his leaving piece for the school magazine in about Y1998 he described how, on arrival in 1985/6 he found the cane in the head master's office and binned it. So the previous head had still kept it, even if (as I understand it) it had been rarely used in the early 80s.

In primary school in the early 80s, a whack on the back of the legs wasn't uncommon. Not common, but did happen occasionally.

What would also now be called verbal abuse was also much more normal. I remember our excellent Y1 teacher (I was 5-6) in 1980 telling a child that if they did X or Y she'd make them wish they'd never been born. I remember where I was standing in the classroom when she said it (45 years later)

At the same secondary I do remember pupils being punished in various creative ways that would be frowned upon now as bordering on psychological torture. But since it was common, it was merely viewed as deeply unpleasant.

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chriscringlesmother@reddit

I started 85 too, same experience, no cane talk until I was in secondary school and the old boys kept harping on, however, my reception teacher was never too shy about using a rule in the back your hands to teach you a lesson, if you were bad it was the flat bit and a couple of whacks, if you were really bad, it was the edge and I can remember that feeling of fear when she got the ruler out now clear as day. Hated that teacher,

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LadyInAllPower@reddit

I went to a private school in the 80s where corporal punishment was still used but only very rarely. Don’t think there was a process a such, but it was only really used against boys.

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leftintheshaddows@reddit

My relative is left handed, if they was caught using their left hand to write they would have the cane smacked down hard on their hand. I don't believe parents were informed but this was at a bording school so I guess punishment rules were different as the kids lived at the school.

But this was in the times that if you were caught doing something wrong in the streets the policeman would smack you round the head, drag you home by the ear to your mother who would smack you round the head infront of the policeman and throw you in the house before apologising to the policeman.

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nospamz@reddit

I attended a boarding school in the 1980’s and definitely got the cane as a punishment for something. I think it was after 1986 so the school had to ask parents permission.

For the record it was the cane applied 6 times to my butt. I knew it was going to happen so I wore extra underpants 😂

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ThrustersToFull@reddit

Hahaha well prepared! I have a friend who got it at boarding school to, but bare bottom. 12 for being caught with booze and cigarettes. He said it stung when he sat down for a day or two after.

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ForArsesSake@reddit

Permission not needed as far as I knew. Kids hauled up to the front of the class immediately following the alleged offence and slippered there and then. Fucking horrifying to watch as a kid, god knows what it was like for the victim.

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HomeworkInevitable99@reddit

In 1969 I was in class and the male teacher literally dragged a pupil from the back of the class to the front to give corporal punishment. The boy was 9 years old.

The crime? The pupil said, as a joke, the teacher could not count.

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Gingerpett@reddit

Yep. I was at school in the eighties. Must have been 1984. Can still remember Stuart D (who was a little scroat but good hearted) pissing a teacher off and being hauled to the front, bent over the desk and Mr W hitting his arse with his trainer (Stuart's) a couple of times.

I remember I was shocked, so it must not have happened that often. Stuart cried. It took a couple of minutes all told. He went and sat back down, the lesson went on. Nothing else came of it. If anything Stuart got a bit of kudos from the other boys for being hard. (Don't think anyone blamed him for crying.)

That was it.

Utterly horrific now I reflect on it. But then I was getting the same at home, as were most of my friends, so it didn't seem that different - spanked by a teacher, spanked by a parent - same thing.

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SecretHipp0@reddit

Bet they didn't do it again though

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jcmush@reddit

No, we did

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BadestTony@reddit

I was at school on the 70s and was caned on the palm. The worst part was spending all lunch break standing in the corridor outside the staff room, facing the wall, waiting to be caned. I still can't remember what it was for though.

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PLTuck@reddit

I got caned at middle school, which would have been between '78 and '82 for climbing on the roof. Didnt stop me climbing. I was ADHD and didnt know it.

Also had a teacher in that school who would rap a handful of wooden rulers, side on, on your shoulder, or throw one of the big wooden blackboard wipers at your head if you were talking or daydreaming.

Don't ever recall them having to ask my parents permission either.

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MinerWillie@reddit

I was at school in the 70s and 80s. I was slapped with a ruler, a cane, and a thick leather strap (not all at the same time obvs). It wasn't that bad - yes your hand would sting for a few minutes but then that was it. To me a couple of minutes of mild pain was preferable to spending ages writing lines for homework, although I appreciate that sending the message that violence is acceptable is problematic.

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ShineAtom@reddit

Mixed comprehensive school in the 1960s. I never saw a cane. Did pupils get caned? I really do not know. None of the teachers ever hit us. If caning was done, it would have been the headmaster. I can't imagine our deputy head mistress doing that even if her appearance did make all us girls hide our non-conforming skirts (we had a strict school uniform although clearly more relaxed than many of today's academies: none of our teachers were bothered, they just wanted us to learn). Although when she taught us, she was a fantastic teacher and never once commented on our uniform.

I think the dunce's hat was something from the Victorian era so way before my time!

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thesyldon@reddit

I was at school all through the 70's. The first time you got sent for the cane is terrifying. After that no one gives a monkeys. I have seen people ask the teacher if that is the best they have.

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rictay44@reddit

Caning happened occasionally at my school in the late 50s. It didn't hurt because we'd put an open exercise book down the back of our pants so felt very little. The ones who got hurt were those who didn't use an open exercise book. One kid at our school used a whoopy cushion.

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Own_Employment2007@reddit

I started primary school in 1980. In one of the early years I had a teacher who would smack the bottoms of naughty children. It was always boys and only a few of them. Always the same ones.

She would take them to the cloakroom outside the classroom and do it out of sight of the rest of the rest of the class. I tried to look once but I was too short too reach the window in the door.

I think there were degrees of punishment, bare bottom for the worst offence, trousers on for lesser ones.

She was an older woman, I think. That was the only corporal punishment that I happened in my school days.

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ARobertNotABob@reddit

I left school in '75. Was caned once, the year before, though headmaster used a wooden yard ruler rather than a cane, 3 rapid strikes. Had a letter to take home to parents explaining why I'd been punished.

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shrewdlogarithm@reddit

My primary school used a ruler across the hand from age 5 - I got that a few times for crimes like spilling poster paint

My middle school caned anyone who fought or broke stuff - no parental permission was sought or required - it was a multi times a week event

My high school was run by a man so spineless he couldn't bring himself to do much of anything - he did expel me for fighting back against 6 kids who'd bullied me for weeks tho so there's that

The school I went to thereafter was run by a headmaster who used a cane if he liked you but mostly he just punched you in the solar plexus to make his point - usually during assembly for extra impact

We focus so much on how this seems brutal and unnecessary and completely ignore the fact we have no way to control kids who are, frankly, a waste of dna

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shrewdlogarithm@reddit

Downvoted for explaining reality

Reddit, where life is as simple as most of the People who downvote...

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Significant_Air_1662@reddit

At 5 years old in exactly 86 I saw a teacher grab a child’s arm, lift it above his head, and then smack his arse open-handed so hard his feet left the ground. Can’t remember what he was doing, but I do remember his mum angrily asking him after the fact. Like he had dared waste the teachers time. We weren’t posh enough for canes.

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Plus_Pangolin_8924@reddit

I had a teacher in 2001 shatter a meter stick striking a table of a kid that was talking too much. She also dropped a large stack of books next to a kid who was “sleeping” he got such a fright he fell backwards and smashed his head off the floor.

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Diplomatic_Gunboats@reddit

My last teacher at primary school in the 80's had caned my father at school 20 years before.

He always seemed disappointed he couldnt do the same to me.

To be fair, my father did stick a fork in someone..... The worst I did was intentionally straight drive fast balls back at the bowler in cricket. And I had good aim.

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

As late as 1992 I witnessed a pupil being slapped across the face by a teacher - but to be fair he was being a little sh** and fully deserved it. Nothing ever came of it

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_Daftest_@reddit

No they did not need parental permission

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Ok_Cow_3431@reddit

I would have started a christian infant school in 1989 or 1990 and the threat was still very much there, our bitch of a headmistress used to keep canes hanging from her office wall even at that point in time, I distinctly remember 3 or 4 of them hanging there. I am fairly sure I was on the receiving end of some form of corporal punishment as I was a disruptive child, probably undiagnosed ADHD. All through my school life there was always the threat of physical punishment, especially from the older teachers who had spent most of their careers in a time when it was permissable.

Odd isn't it how many shitrags of kids you get these days now that they have nothing to fear for wrongdoing and are untouchable by adults.

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Jassida@reddit

I transitioned from primary to secondary around this time.

The threat was always spoken about amongst pupils and I’m sure my family talked about it like a nuclear option that the headmaster could use to keep you in line but I only remember going into the headmaster’s office at primary school once and got the good cop routine.

Most kids were pretty confident they weren’t getting caned but they knew it wasn’t impossible.

I feel like I went to school at a good time. Things were less old school but kids just didn’t really push boundaries that much

I went to a grammar school but there were still rough kids there and I never heard any crazy stories from other schools either

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Randohumanist@reddit

Teachers just decided and you got a whack. I once got the belt for defending myself from a bully. The bully came off much worse. It was worth getting the belt.

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Useless_or_inept@reddit

I never saw a cane, but there was some other low-level corporal punishment in the 1980s. Definitely no parental permission slip involved; it was an impulsive thing. Some little shit is disrupting the classroom? Drag them out by the ear. Somebody annoys the PE teacher? They'll stand in goal whilst the hockey teacher thwacks hockey balls at them until they get a nice big bruise.

Most people are completely oblivious to the gradual decline of low-level, routine daily violence across Western societies. It is not specific to the UK, or to schools, but we are getting less violent in situations like this. Fifty or a hundred years ago, there was a very real risk that an authority figure (teacher, boss, police, husband, somebody in uniform) could administer an impromptu punch or slap, maybe throw something, at a lower-status person who did some minor misdeed. I remember seeing a fare-dodger on a train (in another European country) get a black eye from the conductor; it wasn't a dramatic fight, it was just a thing that happened in those days, and nobody was shocked.

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KittyGrewAMoustache@reddit

My Dad started school in the early 50s when he was 5 and on his first day he cried because he’d literally never been away from his mum before. The teacher hit him hard in the face for crying. Can you imagine that now? Just so awful and brutal. I don’t know why but it seems like people used to not see children as real people. Maybe because infant mortality was so high it was like a protective mechanism to help you not feel too attached if they died and that sense that they weren’t real sort of permeated society. And then everyone forgot what it was like to be a kid because they all repressed the horrific memories, leading to them treating kids the same way, as if they weren’t real. People still do it to some extent in various ways. My mum definitely didn’t think I was a real person until I was about 30!

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alphahydra@reddit

I don’t know why but it seems like people used to not see children as real people

If anything, it's partly because they saw them as more-or-less "little adults".

As the person above says, socially condoned adult-on-adult violence was much more common too. Bosses would sometimes strike subordinates, police would routinely beat suspects (more than now), shopkeepers would chase away teenage shoplifters by swinging at them with a broom handle (I saw this happen more than once as late as the 90s!), much more acceptance for disagreements to be "taken outside" versus worked out through formal channels, before we even talk about what was accepted in the domestic realm.

Combine that with very little general understanding of child psychology. Little conception of the child's mind as something to nurture and grow. It was often seen as something with a lot of sharp edges that needed knocked off.

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Bob_Leves@reddit

Infant mortality was high everywhere in the past, though less so in more developed countries. It's more likely a Victorian, Empire thing of 'the bold and brave Briton shows his superiority by his refusal to show his emotions'. Like all those colonial administrators in the tropics who dressed in 3-piece suits.and ties in 40 degree heat because "we have to maintain our standards".

Back to the original question, I got the slipper once in primary school, late 70s, no idea why now but its the only corporal punishment I recall.

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inspectorgadget9999@reddit

There was a that saying 'spare the rod, and spoil that person' which made it seem like your helping them.

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Bob_Leves@reddit

"The beatings will continue until morale improves"

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markedmo@reddit

Your PE teacher story has unlocked a memory, as a year 3 kid being made to line up in front of the cricket big white blocker thing with some friends while the older kids (year 7/8) pelted us with tennis balls. The game was called red arse.

It was an honour to be involved.

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No_Snow_8746@reddit

Well, it's a good thing that those behaviours involving minor day to day misdeeds are no longer acceptable. Interested in your opinion here because you've expressed none...

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Lebdude@reddit

A core memory for me is when i was in reception so age 4 and a half our teacher was a nun, we were sat in a circle singing some songs, when our teacher got called out of the room. She told us all to sit still and she would be back in a minute.

As soon as she had gone all the kids went feral running about climbing on stuff ect. i stayed sat down as didn’t want to get into trouble. teacher comes back in sees chaos and looses. makes everyone line up in front of her desk and canes everyone.

i remember thinking how unfair it was as i’d done nothing wrong had done as i was still sat down but got the cane anyway.

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Cirieno@reddit

I was slippered at school (boarding, late '80s) repeatedly, but never caned.

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Falloffingolfin@reddit

I started secondary school in 1992, so missed the cane by a few years but lived through the aftermath.

I grew up in a struggling northern mining town after the pit closures, and my secondary school was considered among the worst in the country whilst I was there. A big contributor to that was the old guards ability to teach without corporal punishment.

For context, I've seen school photos on Facebook groups from the late 1950s that had teachers that were still there teaching me in the early 90s. The vast majority of them had been there since the 1960s, and it was a big old school. My Dad became a governor in 96 to help sort it out and it was described to him as the old guard only being used to keeping kids in line for a few years before they'd leave at 16 and go down the pit. Without the cane, they just became a joke.

Teachers would scream and shout without any teeth or consequence. We knew they couldn't do anything, and rather like thieves and drug dealers today, we became emboldened in the knowledge that nothing was going to come of bad behaviour.

There was very little learning. Winding teachers up until they snapped became a sport. They started retiring in drives and many were having nervous breakdowns. One french teacher locked us all in the classroom and disappeared. Another teacher came to let us out about 45 mins later. The french teacher had clearly just lost it and a walked. We never saw him again. Just one example. Without the armoury of corporal punishment, their teaching methods were ineffective and the kids ruled the halls.

Towards the end of my time there, we finally started getting some younger teachers who had never taught with cane and were able to touch through inspiring. I remember our new English teacher set us a project to write some creative sci-fi, and we watched Blade Runner as an example. This was literally unheard of with the old guard who would expect you to sit in silence whilst staring at a blackboard. There was also an amazing young drama teacher that ultimately inspired me to university to study performing arts.

I don't blame the old guard, and nor am I saying older teaching methods were shit. I think I'd have had a much better education if I'd have either been taught under corporal punishment where disruption would've been subdued, or a couple of years later with modern teaching. It's a shame my education was delivered predominantly by people who'd had their tools taken away without been given the means to adapt their method. The positive is that I got to come of age in the 90s which was a privilege and had a hell of a lot of fun.

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anabsentfriend@reddit

I was 15 in 1986,. There was no corporal punishment in my school. Teachers would throw board rubbers and chalk at us if we weren't paying attention, but that was the extent of it.

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InteractionHairy6112@reddit

It was a system that empowered perverts and masochists to live out their fantasies within the realms of the law.

Absolutely barbaric.

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msmoth@reddit

No caning in my junior school, just shouting. The headmistress of my infants school (equivalent of Reception/Y1/Y2) would smack naughty kids on the bum in front of the whole school if they'd been misbehaving in assembly.

I went to secondary school in 1990 and there were always rumours of physical punishments but these were only seen very rarely.

No permission was sought from parents - it was a very in-the-moment thing.

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good-SWAWDDy@reddit

I started in 1984 and got hit once. I wouldn't stop talking apparently. Not even as in talking to friends, I am an information sponge, I needed to know everything. Apparently she just snapped.

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hornet-prodder-214@reddit

I started school in the early 50's when caning was the norm for 'naughty' kids like me, who regularly endured the punishment.On most occasions it was carried out there and then in front of the class across the buttocks; but for more serious offences the headteacher carried out the punishment across the non dominant hand.

Teachers also used a slipper or threw a blackboard rubber across the classroom, when anyone was disruptive in class. However, I was the exception and the vast majority of other children were well behaved.

To put this in context with the then societal values, kids were also clipped across their ears, or hit with a leather belt, usually across the legs by their parents. Local 'bobbies', (Police Officers), were allowed to clip us across the ears if we got up to any mischief outside.

Horrendous as it sounds these days, children were usually well behaved and respected the Law - unlike these days, when a lot of kids could be described as hooligans.

Whether this is because Corporal Punishment was outlawed or because of a steady decline in parenting approaches is debatable, but there has been a visible lack of respect for others in children over time; to the extent that many teenagers think they own the world and some even kill each other with knives.

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canthinkupauser@reddit

You think the uptick in youth crime is to do with the fact we no longer casually abuse children, and nothing to do with the absolute gutting of youth services by successive governments over the last 16 years?

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hornet-prodder-214@reddit

As I said - it's debatable as to what has caused the decline in social standards and there are many contributing factors.

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XylanderDraestrom@reddit

It is technically "debatable" in the sense that multiple factors influence social behaviour, but the vast majority of research suggests corporal punishment is actually harmful, and that changes in youth crime are better explained by socioeconomic and institutional factors.

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canthinkupauser@reddit

Precisely. Wages haven't gone up in real terms since 2008, and the policy of managed decline from successive governments has resulted in a generation that have been left behind.

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SnooHabits8484@reddit

But crime has declined massively and consistently for about 40 years.

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ice-lollies@reddit

I stared school late 70’s, early 80’s and it was still very similar where I am.

Having said that, I think we could get away with stuff then that was just accepted as normal kid behaviour. We were half feral compared to children now, and me and my brothers were good kids from a nice family.

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qmejecht21@reddit

I went to secondary school in the 70s, the cane was only used for serious offences at my school. Some teachers had a strap, similar to describes above and appeared to enjoy using it. I think every teacher gave our some form of physical punishment, usually 'the slipper'. It didn't stop the bad kids from misbehaving.

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Ochib@reddit

I was in a private school and they worked on a Plus and Minus system.
To get a Minus depended on the Teacher, but it could be talking in class
If you got 5 minus in a week you had to copy out a book onto a Side of paper
If you got 5 Sides you could either get one of the cane or write 5 Sides

So it was very common

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CreativeAdeptness477@reddit

Born in the late 70s, never saw nor heard about a cane or any other physical punishment except in story books and comics set much earlier.
Closest was much later when the science teacher threw a blackboard eraser at Alex and twatted him square in the face and broke his nose, but Alex was an absolute little prick and was mocking the teacher's cancer-stricken wife so kinda deserved it. That was mid/late 90s though.

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BadeArse@reddit

Ah, reminds me of a story about the dickhead class clown, we were in year 10 I think… he was winding up our physics teacher, we too far and made some remark about the teachers mum, likely (typically) sexual in nature but I can’t remember. The teacher calmly explained his mum had recently died (and he had just been off for a week or two, this may have even been his first day back). Kid replies “well, I’ll just have to go and dig the bitch up then!”

Cue teacher chasing the kid around the classroom like Homer chasing Bart, arms outstretched trying to strangle him. At the time it seemed hilarious… They ended up out in the corridor and had a bit of a scrap. Teacher left the kid curled up crying in the corridor after a beating. Didn’t see either of them in school for a few weeks after that, but somehow teach didn’t outright lose his job.

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Mr06506@reddit

Late 90s for me so obviously no cane, but a textiles teacher did the same thing at me, except she was a terrible shot and the blackboard marker hit the perfectly innocent girl next to me square in the eye.

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Urthwild@reddit

How did Alex even know about the teacher’s wife?

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CreativeAdeptness477@reddit

Teacher mentioned something at some point, can't recall what or why, but it's a school so any gossip about a teacher spreads fast.

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azzuri_uk@reddit

One time my history teacher, a proper old boy who kept a bottle of whisky in his desk, stopped me and said "You boy. I remember your father, I gave him the slipper". Not sure I ever heard my dad mention a cane though.

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boobiemilo@reddit

I attended a Roman Catholic primary school. The cane had been used there however at some point it was changed to a slipper these were administered by the headmaster if you were sent to his office and usually ‘on the spot’ for things like fighting, spitting stealing, swearing, backchat and any sort of mis behaviour during mass or prayer. However we did have a particularly ruthless and mean music teacher who would ‘ go to town’ on you with a ruler for any reason depending on her mood, also depending on the child depended on which edge she would use, I’d often get a couple of stripes a week for failing uniform inspection. We were poor so I only had 1 pair of shoes’and they were trainers so they were over gonna pass ‘shiney shoes’ inspection on Monday mornings and there would be random checks for grey socks and blue pants/knickers. I didn’t have these either. She would also haul you up the front for chatting during class.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

Fuck. Catholic school checking the colour of your pants?

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flyin_jimmy@reddit

Getting the colour of your pants inspected was the least of your worries being a young child connected to the Catholic church back then.

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

I know, red pants, to the head master's office for a punishment bumming...

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No-Agent3916@reddit

I started primary school in 82 , I remember a friend getting the cane, he had 3 big red stripes across his bum. They did ask his parents and they did it was ok 👌. The headmistress who di it also wore gold sovereign rings , a leopard print tracksuit and smoked cigarettes in a holder all over the school. Serious jimmy savile vibes. In secondary school it was less organised but I got hit by teachers several times but I never told my parents as I assumed it was somewhat normal

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scooches66@reddit

I was at school during the 70s and corporal punishment was definitely a thing. I had a ruler whacked on the palm of my right hand once for laughing in class. Left me unable to use my hand for the rest of the day, and being right-handed, that got me in more trouble! I was never caned, but I remember others getting the 'slipper' as it was called. It was just accepted that if you were 'naughty' you would be physically punished. It was the same at home, my mum would leave my legs with red handprints on them if I stepped out of line.

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Click_for_noodles@reddit

I was in primary school in the 80s, and no canes or mention of them.

At junior school, I suspect there was a teacher who loved using the cane though based on how he dealt with disruptive kids (can't recall any incident where it wasn't! boy!). You might see why I think that!

He was a giant Welshman whose mood could do a 180 in under 20 seconds. Boys talking in class had chalk thrown at them in the first instance, followed swiftly by the board rubber if that didn't work. If their behavior succeeded in turning his face red, that amped things up to being grabbed by the collar to lift them up to his face and shouted at. If it was really bad, he'd grab the back of their collar to carry them across the classroom to either the fire escape (we were on the first floor) and threaten to throw them down the stairs or the window and threaten to hold them out by their ankles. That usually worked and no one ever got launched, but the threat was real!

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hdhddf@reddit

meter ruler on the arse, 6 of the best as they called it and that continued well into the 90s

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Adventurous_Laugh170@reddit

I was never caned but was punched, slapped and hit with objects. I hated school and still do. I left 41 years ago.

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cybertonto72@reddit

Started school in 77, was caned more times than I remember. Last time I got the cain I had to twice in one day. Some kid kicked off so a bunch of us got '6 of the best', 6 times across the palm of the hand. Then got 6 more later that day from a different teacher cause I was 'acting up, and wouldn't do my work'. I couldn't hold my pen and was asking to go see the nurse.

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Impetuous_doormouse@reddit

I was in primary school when cqning was banned, so I never saw a cane. But the secondary I went to still had teachers from that era and the whole faculty would turn a blind eye to Mr Griffiths, the CDT teacher hitting kids with the side of a metal rule. One of my mates got it just for standing wit his hands in his pockets.

And the fact they were still the same sadistic fucks meant that there would regularly be times when teachers would use the class bullies as enforcers.

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Silver_Adagio138@reddit

Never saw the cane but we did have slipper in 1960s primary school.

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Holiday-Wafer708@reddit

My dad talks about the slipper in the 70s he said they all got sent to his classroom and his form tutor would hit them with the slipper in front of everyone

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Able_While_974@reddit

Yes, we had the slipper in the 70s.

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DoKtor2quid@reddit

Us too. In my primary you had either the slipper (bum), or the wooden ruler (hand). One teacher was fond of throwing the board duster, which was pretty lethal.

The idea the school might have rung a parent to ask permission is hilarious; that’s the kind of question that could only be asked by someone who didn’t experience the 70s. Also, no mobile phones and many didn’t have a landline (we had a party line) so parents were not easily contactable, not that that happened anyway.

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JavaRuby2000@reddit

Went to school in the 80s and 90s and never saw a cane in school although it didn't stop some teachers from using other forms of physical punishment. We had a deputy head at primary school who would literally just beat up kids. I think in Ausralia they didn't ban it till much later. There was an episode of Neighbours where several of them got the cane.

My mums generation it was more common but, at her school it wasn't the teachers who gave the cane. The teachers would decide which kid was going to get the punishment and then made one of the prefects administer it. They used a leather strap rather than a cane though.

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Rude-Possibility4682@reddit

Mainly the cane was only used for incidents of bullying or fighting at my school in the early 80s. I recall one of the particularly nasty bullies, getting caned on the stage in front of the school assembly. The following afternoon his father marched across the playground, and landed one on the Deputy head who had done the caning, and said something akin to, don't you ever hit my son again. Deputy head then threw the best right hook I've ever seen, and knocked the father to the floor, saying, if you can't control your son, then I will. Half the playground let out a cheer.

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Y-Bob@reddit

My teachers would often throw wooden blackboard erasers at us, some had a remarkably good aim.

Teachers would quite often manhandle us, I remember my feet leaving the ground when the PE teacher grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up the wall.

My primary school head mistress kept her bulldog in her office to scare kids and was a dab hand with her slipper that she used to punish naughty children.

My high school had dropped the ruler across the knuckles and the cane a year or so before I started.

This was because a kid had been sent to rector (as we called the head master) for punishment. The kid kept moving his hand out the way everyone the rector swung his cane, so the kids was made to stand against the desk with his hand just above the desk.

The next bit smashed his hand into the desk, breaking his knuckles.

Cue new rector and a ban on the vicious bastards using direct corporal punishment.

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Beavberry@reddit

You might get more answers in r/askoldpeople or similar if there's a UK specific sub (sorry, I have no idea how to link!). My dad and uncles, in their late 60s now, did get the cane/ruler etc. I only heard a few stories. One that the youngest brother was treated harshly based on the family connection, hit over nothing by the one teacher until big bro went and had a word.

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flyin_jimmy@reddit

The benchmark of 'old' in that sub being 46 made me laugh a lot.

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Intelligent_Sir_1923@reddit

Was in school from late 70’s to early 80’s . In the U.K. Primary school I was slapped around the face by a teacher when I was seven , kids used to get smacked regularly. Ruler across the hand used as well . One female teacher used to love digging her nails into your neck as a punishment. Went to middle school (9-13 ) and if badly behaved would get the “slipper” across the back side and one male teachers technique was lifting you up by your sideburns . Didn’t see anything physical from teachers in high school

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doriobias@reddit

Not uncommon for the blackboard rubber to be launched across the room at a child's head, swearing was punished by being forced to eat soap (to wash your mouth out) and frequently smacking on the legs and ass was acceptable punishment after their ability to use the cane was taken away. Also saw chairs being thrown by teachers and desks being upturned and also children's fingers being slammed between 2 desks by a teacher. Children were frequently grabbed and pulled along by the ear by teachers while being marched quickly to their punishment. A wooden ruler was used to smack a child's hands for disobedience. If you forgot your PE kit you were forced to do it in your underwear. The 80s was a gruesome time to be a student.

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daveyboy2009@reddit

I got the cane in 86.

I was bang to rights, Headmaster said “we can involve your parents or you can have 5 strokes on each hand”.

5 strokes on each hand (palm up) was better than getting my dad involved (or disappointing my mum).

It hurt like shit for about an hour but the kudos of getting the cane lasted for weeks.

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annies999@reddit

No, they didn't need parental permission. But what they did have to do was keep a written record of corporate punishments, stating time and date, grounds for the punishment, what the punishment was and signed by the person who gave it - in my day that was either a head of year or a deputy/head-master.

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Chicken_shish@reddit

I started school in 76, got caned pretty much every term, sometimes twice a term. I was a little fucker and I probably deserved it. It ended up being a mind game between me and the headmaster (who was also an evil fucker). The thing about caning is that you know it is going to happen, so you can prepare the games in advance. Last time I got caned, I turned to him with hand extended and said "thank you sir, i hope you enjoyed that as much as I did". I got thrown out the next day....

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PingouinFluffy@reddit

They didn't cane at my schools as it was an all girls school, but they got the slipper at my brother's, which was a pump rather than a slipper. They beat them with it, didnt ask parents, just beat them.

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Pixiebel81@reddit

I was taught by nuns in Northern Ireland in the 80s. It did not stop in 1986.

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LemmysCodPiece@reddit

I saw it happen. They used an old yard ruler. It made me realise that I didn't want to fuck up that bad. That was 1979 in primary school. Roll on a few years in secondary school and I found myself before the headmaster, with two other boys. I hadn't done anything, but was guilty by association. The headmaster has a cane in his hand whilst he bawled at us and swiped it through the air a few times. Scared the shit out of me.

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clrthrn@reddit

I was at primary school when it got banned. I never saw anyone getting caned before that but teachers could get handsy by dragging you out of your seat or throwing things at you. After 1986, teachers had to control groups of up to 40 kids with words only, with no threat of violence to back them up and not all of them were capable of it. Class sizes were bigger back then. My kid has a class of 28 and my class was 38 sometimes 40 kids.

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DarkStarComics333@reddit

One of my uncles got the cane in the 60s. In response my nan went up the school and hit the headmaster with her handbag.

I started school in the late 80s so it was long gone by then but some old school teachers did love to make you shit yourself by thwacking the metre stick across the desks in front of your nose.

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BrucetheGingemo@reddit

Whilst in primary school one of the Yr6 teachers took a lad out of a classroom who was playing up, and whilst in the process of giving out the rollicking punched a hole in the wall inches from the lad's head.

My Sister came up through the school behind me and the hole was still there five years later when she left!

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crazyabbit@reddit

Went to a all boy's school , you got the cane for breaking the rules, insubordination - fighting ect . Then it would require a visit to the deputy head's office with subsequent interrogation about circumstances of your infractions. And would likely conclude with either 3 strokes to your hand or 6 to your rear end . My parents were never informed about any caning that had taken place no-one was everything happened in the heads office. Nothing but nothing was going to be allowed to tarnish the good reputation of the school!. Well that was until the pedo sports teacher eventually got arrested for making us all swim naked & the police found photos, but that was years later & who'd believe those bad kid's.

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FrostySquirrel820@reddit

In Scottish schools teachers used the tawse (aka "the belt"). It was a thick leather strap with a split end designed to sting the palms.

I remember being belted at 6 by my primary teacher for a misdemeanour. However I was falsely accused so I’m still pretty bitter about it.

In 1982 the European Court of Human Rights declared that schools could not use corporal punishment against a parent's philosophical convictions. (Campbell and Cosans v UK)

In 1987 it was officially abolished in state-funded schools across the UK and in 2000 it was banned in private schools in Scotland.

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cannon4344@reddit

I was born in 82, I got my hand hit with a ruler in first year of school. All because I was unknowingly scribbling in my note book with my pencil.

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Rusty_Tap@reddit

In the mid 90s we had a PE teacher who would whip a child with a towel occasionally (not a sexual thing). I remember coming home with a nice welt on my side one day because I could not climb a rope efficiently enough on the extremely rare occasion that The Apparatus™ was in use.

Dad took me to school the following day which was absolutely unheard of, and the PE teacher went on a nice holiday.

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SheriffOfNothing@reddit

It was banned in my local authority at least a decade before it was banned nationally, so I never saw it. Corporal punishment was still common in the home, though and typically a slipper or something else wide, flat and (I think) noisy.

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Major_Bag_8720@reddit

My Dad got caned at school a few times in the 50s. Sounds like it was pretty normal practice, although apparently only boys got the cane. Girls got the edge of a ruler to the hand, which must still have been pretty painful.

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Bloatville@reddit

I was in primary school from 1978-1989 and we had corporal punishment, I don’t remember it stopping at any point before I left.
My brother and I went to the same primary, but different secondary schools. There was no corporal punishment at my secondary, but there was for the duration of his. He would've started there in 1986.

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Azyall@reddit

I started school in the early '70s. Caning was rare in all of the schools I attended, but it did happen occasionally. The offender was sent to the headmaster (never had a headmistress, so wouldn't know if that would still have been the case), who investigated and then did any disciplining. Teachers only tended to give out the non-physical punishments. Never heard of an actual case of the legendary "six of the best". Usually it was two or three strokes, and in one school I attended the "cane" was actually a wooden ruler.

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Centurix@reddit

I can still hear the sound of a chalk board cleaner flying through the air towards a student with laser precision. Got the cane twice in the seventies across the palms. Both times got the "this hurts me more than you" bullshit.

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jools4you@reddit

I once watched a primary school kid, hauled out of the line, we where going back to class after break and beat black and blue. He was maybe 8 or 9 and the headmaster had a fistful of his hair and smacked the fuck out of that kid. Now I'd been hit enough by this monster but this day was another level. The kid was screaming. I will never forget the dinner ladies just looking but doing nothing. That was around 1978

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Wibblejellytime@reddit

My mum had a scar above her eyebrow where a teacher had thrown a wooden board eraser at her head for "ignoring him". That would have been late 50's.

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Mountain_Flamingo759@reddit

My school used the cane. Only the Head or Deputy Head could use it.

It was a "last resort" punishment. Alcohol, smoking or violence.

Strangest thing, it was always the same people receiving their lashes.

It scared the average pupil but not the hardened, future criminal type.

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Gylzcy@reddit

Yes - back in the late 1960s my father was the deputy head who was delegated to cane people. He hated it. The school only caned for serious problems (violence, theft etc) which would otherwise probably have meant going to the police.

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StillNectarine7493@reddit

Grandad told me he’d constantly get just for being left handed. Theyd make them write with the right and get a cane across the left everytime they spotted you using the left. He said lefties were accused of being the devil or having the devil in them? Something along those lines. I find that fucking crazy. He was also ginger which was another popular one for devil accusations because gingers are apparently born without a soul or other similar bat shit superstitions like that.

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khan800@reddit

Sinister and Dexterity: Why "Left" is Associated With Evil | Merriam-Webster

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Naughty-Stepper@reddit

Junior school early 80s, unannounced hands, ruler & slipper. Cane on show when sent to head teacher’s office, but usually a slipper. Take medicine, walk out with head low, then laugh with mates on way back to class. Wasn’t much of a deterrent, I managed 5 consecutive days………. Spitting in playground, swearing, football through window and guilt by association.

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CraftyWeeBuggar@reddit

I thought it was banned earlier, memory a bit fuzzy, i thought it was already banned; however i know it was banned for the first week of primary even when it was in effect (so maybe thats why im getting the dates wrong). Anyways, I got a rapped on the knuckles on my first day of school, for talking, (female, who's only in recent years realised they have adhd, aka talking is a stress response to socialising, it cannot be helped).

There was no parental consent, she just hit me, she was my p1 teacher, who was also head of the infants section (p1-p3) . I recall my mum's response, i was never hit again by staff in school, apparently they don't like when adults hit them back, whilst screaming about it being banned and a cruel practice, albeit think mum said evil bitch, or words to that effect.

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Sea_Pomegranate8229@reddit

LOL @ 'Asking parents first'.

I started school in '66. Kids dragged around and slapped was not uncommon in primary school. In Grammar/Secondary school you had the well aimed board rubber, the black-board compasses, the back-of-the-head-slap with hand or book, the ruler across the knuckles, the hair twist, and more.

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Christine4321@reddit

Caning was still commonly used when I was at school, but only on the boys, not girls. No parental permission wasnt needed, it was simply part and parcel of the schools discipline policies. I was grammar school educated, so main stream, but I inow discipline was tougher in the public schools, (these are private schools in the UK unlike ‘public’ schools in US which tend to refer to state funded schools) as my husband went to public school. Discipline there made caning seem tame.

As to ‘dunce caps’ I very much doubt anyone is old enough to have been around when these were uses, it may have been something around my grandparents era (turn of the century). so youre reliant on social historians to answer that.

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SwitchFast1029@reddit

My autistic Nan, (turns 80 this year) was made to wear the Dunce cap regularly for being ‘stupid’. She just had autism and wasn’t able to pick things up as quickly as everyone else.

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Anxious_wank@reddit

Mid nineties, school in a deprived area, there was one subtitute teach that was a long term sub for my class.

She was from old stock and would remind you that she could hit you. She would throw things the chalk board thing at people and slam them down on your table.

She was a bitter old lady that only knew how to teach through fear. She was the worst I remember, others were younger teachers and there was a clear difference between younger/older teachers.

The other one would just constantly humiliate the kids that weren't as smart, which basically were the ones with dyslexia, or adhd etc. They were bullied so hard in that class that kids didn't even have to try bullying them, the teacher did the job for us.

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Even_Passenger_3685@reddit

At our 80s very rural C of E primary school the head teacher defo had….issues. I remember kids getting caned quite regularly, it was usually in assembly in front of everyone for such evil infractions as swinging on the gate.

We also developed good reaction times dodging chalk and board rubbers thrown at speed. Clips round the back of the head or legs were commonplace, as was being whacked on the hand with a ruler (in passing). Weird shit like standing on one leg for ages, or standing holding a piece of paper to the wall with our nose.

Woe betide you if you were left handed, poor, ginger, “thick” or in anyway less than obedient.

No one questioned this. It was the norm.

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Local_lifter@reddit

I left school in 86. Never saw a cane. I think it was used more in private schools than in the shitty run down schools I went to.

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1968Bladerunner@reddit

Think the strap / tawse was more prevalent in Scotland (happy to be corrected tho') in the 70s & early 80s.

Never had it myself but witnessed numerous instances of classmates getting it, often for very mild infractions.

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SignificanceHead9957@reddit

In Scotland they used a thick purpose made leather belt. I got it literally hundreds of times. One teacher hated me and was of the school of thought where one should beat compliance and knowledge into a pupil. I hate you to this day Mrs Duff - I hope you died in pain and alone.

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skinch@reddit

Walker Comprehensive, Newcastle 77-83. I could write a book about the casual violence dished out by those teachers authorised to do so. It was the deputy head, and the odd lone wolf who seemed to love it. Palms or arse with the cane or belt. The victims were usually taken to an office, but it was occasionally done in front of the rest of the class. I only experienced it once - some fucking maniac tried to cut my index finger off with a knife in the corridor, and I was taken to the nurses room. It was deemed that I didn’t need stitches, so was sent to the deputy head office to explain what happened. I had to make up some bullshit, as if we were in prison, and he wasn’t having it. I got the cane on my uninjured hand for not complying. The knife-nutter got away without a worry. PE teachers had a special licence for violence - I remember one of them grabbing a kids hair, pulling him downwards and kicking him multiple times in the face because of a javelin incident which could have resulted in a skewered teacher. And don’t get me started on children being forced to stand in the bin facing a wall for half a lesson.

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Beanieboru@reddit

We were beaten with anything the teachers could get their hands on, whenever they wanted. Went to an all boys grammar school starting in the late 70s. Weapon of choice would be the leather strap, but trainers, wire flex, 3ft metal edged ruler, doweling rod, board dust. Or just fists. sounds horrendous but not that bad to be honest. There were a few occasions (2 or 3 perhaps in 5 years) where it was a bit much but most of the time it was the humiliation rather than any real pain. Also had a bit of humour, one teacher would shout for a dap (west country for trainer) before hitting someone with it. A pupil would hand him trainer and victim would get hit with a sports shoe. One day someone was going to get a "beating" (maybe no homework, maybe talking when shouldnt, and he shouted "dap, give me a dap, with that 35 trainers were flung at him with varying intensity. Put it another way, corporal punishment at my school was alot less painful then playing rugby on a frozen, icy pitch where the ice would literally cut you. Headmaster would also beat you up (punch kick shove you) if you werent do well enough. Fortunately there was no canings across the arse and i can guarantee there will be fellow classmates that would vehemently disagree with my take on it, but then i kept my head down and avoided getting too many beatings.

Id also add one teacher who was particularly nasty, had been so disliked at his previous school that after catching some of the pupils doing a runner to play truant there was a scuffle and he was kicked in the face loosing all his front teeth, pretty sure there was an element of revenge in that kick.

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Michael_of_Derry@reddit

They used a leather strap in my school. It was across the hands.

It could be used for something as simple as talking in class or assembly or being late.

Our German teacher was upset at no one learning vocabulary so played 'double or quits'. He went around the class in roll call order and if you got a question wrong you could receive one slap or try to answer a second question and either get it correct or receive two slaps.

Most of the class enjoyed the peril but i remember one of the tough guys was crying.

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Entire_Trick_9390@reddit

My dad (Scottish highlands) says the day the ban came into effect, the head master pulled him and his friends into his office and gave each of them 3 canes purely because he’d never be allowed to do it again.

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Immediate-Address711@reddit

I started school in 85 so admittedly it was probably all pretty unacceptable and on the down low by then if done as the ban must have been brewing, but anyway and I saw a boy publicly spanked for what I now recognise was masturbation but never saw or heard about canes. That was the only corporal punishment I ever saw in fact

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krabbkat@reddit

My mom was born in the 60s, she said she had to wear the dunce hat quite regularly but children rarely got actually caned. In her experience you were more likely to have the teacher throw things at you, smack you with a ruler or spit at you. She was vile until she died, so maybe beating and humiliating children wasn’t the solution?

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Welshbuilder67@reddit

No parent permission, just down to the headmaster’s office and hand out for the cane or bend over for the dap (sports shoe/plimsole) on your posterior

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Capable_Vast_6119@reddit

There were no rules around this. If the teacher felt you deserved to be hit, you were hit. Simple as. There and then or made to wait (far worse)

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Walkera43@reddit

We had a teacher ex military, physics teacher and discipline master.Always immaculately groomed ,razor sharp creases in his trousers and you could see your face in his well polished shoes.Apart from Physics he was tasked to deliver beatings to errant boys using the standard issue cane.It was simple ,any teacher you had offended through bad behaviour would report you to Jack, you then had to present yourself on the punishment wing (physics prep room)at 12.00 mid day where Jack would inform you of your offence and then invite you to bend over with your head placed under the metal frame of a heavy table, this was to stop the errant boy from straightening up at the first impact ,you were then given 1-6 lashes depending on the offence.There was no emotion ,Jack had a job to do and he carried it out with military precision,he was respected and feared in equal measure.That was back in the 1960s in the UK.

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gingerbread85@reddit

I went to school in the 90s so never saw the cane. In place of the dunce hat we had the yellow T shirt. Naughty kids had to spend play time stood against the school wall with a massive baggy yellow t shirt on. I can't imagine that'd fly these days 😅

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JustAnotherFEDev@reddit

Kinda like Peter Kay's thick table lines, huh? 😂 Mental to think of some of the shit teachers used to do. I had some rough teachers in the 80s, a few bits of stuff hurled at me, dragged out of the classroom by my ear and what not.

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Mazikeenasmustard@reddit

My mum was slapped really hard round the back of her legs by her teacher in the 70s. At the end of the school day, and when she got home - there was still a big red mark. Her mum marched down the school and had it out with the teacher. The thought was that no-one else had the right to hit their kids apart from the parents. Years later, I was taught by the same teacher in the early 90’s, she was horrible to me, she couldn’t hit me physically but made sure she hurt me emotionally. She used to tell me that no-one liked me ☹️

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Fun_Stock7078@reddit

As a parent, I shudder to think what I’d do to someone who would use a weapon to hit my child. 🤷‍♂️

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PaulWhickerTallVicar@reddit

I remember getting caned by the headmaster at junior school in the late 60’s, just for talking during PE in the hall. I was probably around 8 years old. Mr Barlow. Old twat. Still remember how much it stung all these years later.

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DuckThatNoise@reddit

I started school in 88/89 and was caned with a wooden ruler, must have been 91/92. Parents complained, school said sorry, teachers job never at risk. Carried on teaching me for the rest of the academic year.

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Pedantichrist@reddit

I was caned at school. Before the age of 7 they needed parental permission (which my parents did not provide) but after that it was a free rein.

It was not just caning, it was corporal punishment, and we would get sent to the headmaster for a caning or a slippering, but and teacher or matron could use a roller on our hands or just bend us over their knee for a spanking.

There was no paperwork, just reflex.

In 1986 it all ended abruptly for me, and I got detention instead (we called it Pessimi) and, whilst I oppose corporal punishment, as a child Pessimi, with the associated loss of free time and the divide between transgression and consequence, was worse in my mind, at the time.

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inspectorgadget9999@reddit

I remember reading about it in the Beano, it was basically the main plot device in every strip, if I recall.

But then all the characters were homophobic, violent bullies, so maybe they deserved it.

They last sentence was /s before anyone points that out

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CrowApprehensive204@reddit

I started school in 1974, left in 1986. Infant and junior school, kids got the pump, didn't have to inform parents, just got walloped with a pe plimsoll. High school, they didn't cane the girls but they did the boys, didn't have to ask permission or inform the parents. Only certain teachers were allowed to cane, it was the hand that was caned and plenty of boys got it. Seemed to die out once boys got their growth spurt and were bigger than the teachers.

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Streamliner85@reddit

I started high school in 83, slipper was the thing at primary school when I started in the late 70s. Never had it, but heard about it. Blackboard rubbers regularly thrown at pupils across class to 'get attention'. At high school, the headteacher caned pupils, maybe other deputies too. However, teachers would administer mild clouts in lessons. One guy carried a meter stick and smacked the desks with it; another would rub your ears vigorously with the palms of his hands. Don't remember a big announcement when it stopped, or even the usual suspects rejoicing that they'd not get the cane again. I heard that there were rules on cane use: thickness of cane, the fact that you couldn't lift cane over shoulder height.

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stbens@reddit

I began teaching in 1994 and in the registration books we used there was still a page of information about the use of corporal punishment. I can only imagine that there must have been a very large supply of old Registers across the country that had to be used up.

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Cheese_on_yourtoast@reddit

I went to a small private prep school in the late 80’s-90’s. There were two levels of corporate punishment low level offences was a bit across the bum with a piece of skirting board, with the hardness of the hit based on the level of wrongdoing.

The cane did happen but was rare and usually reserved for more serious rule breaches

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bishibashi@reddit

There was still a cane when I started junior school in 1982. I don’t think it was ever actually used though, 4 of us were called to the head after a misdemeanour once, he took the cane out of a drawer, put it on the desk between us and then spoke about our behaviour. Our eyes were all locked on the cane throughout. Then he said “I don’t think we’ll have any more of this nonsense will we boys”, put it away and sent us off. We did not have any more of that nonsense. Even the threat of it was gone a couple of years later.

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rcp9999@reddit

I was after the ban. It still went on. No one cared.

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Super-Craig@reddit

I'm 37. No caning, but I remember my primary school teachers being very heavy handed and strict. I didn't understand it at the time, but it was the most dirsuptive students i.e. the ones with disabilities that recieved the most physical abuse. There was one boy who must've been dyslexic that was constantly getting smacked across the face for consistently reading the blackboard wrong.

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blazecranium@reddit

Hold on, he was constantly getting smacked across the face in school in the 90s??

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Most_Kiwi3141@reddit

In the 90s there were still teachers who'd trained in the 60s. Some wildly illegal shit still went on. Kids don't know the law, they just roll with things.

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boofabeanydogburn@reddit

FYI it's very very likely that OP is a fetishist. The probability that this isn't a fetish thing is quite low.

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boofabeanydogburn@reddit

Whoever downvotes me disagrees that people have a right to know there's a possibility it's for a fetish before they recount stories of abuse

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NotSoF4stCvnt@reddit (OP)

I can tell you’ve spent too much time online by your use of the term, "goon" Adults don’t use that term. We say "Wank" I totally believe you though man. There are some sick bastards in this world. Absolute Wrongens. But there’s billions of people in the world meaning that the few million or so wrongens out there are a minority. Most of us are normal guys that like big whoppers. The internet is a rabbit hole man but it doesn’t always reflect the reality of the world experienced by the general public.

Kid caning fetishes have nothing to do with what this discussion was about. You’ve brought bad energy into this sub mate. It’s not necessarily that people don’t agree with you, it’s that this isn’t the place for it. I mean come on, this subs gotten dark enough without you bringing kid caning fetishes into it. I mean god damnnn.

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Distinct_Ad_2165@reddit

... Oh.

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boofabeanydogburn@reddit

Sorry

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NotSoF4stCvnt@reddit (OP)

Lol, phones have recently been banned in schools by law. I saw something online saying something along the lines of "If this measure fails they’ll bring back the cane" that’s how I got the idea.

Who fetishises little kids being hit with a cane though man? That’s sick. I have normal fetishises like threesomes, and running trains and maybe a golden shower or dogging on the more extreme side but what you’re suggesting is sick though man, god damn

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boofabeanydogburn@reddit

Whatever man. Enjoy your plausible deniability. This is an extremely frequent occurrence regardless and what I say is true, the literal probability is low.

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NotSoF4stCvnt@reddit (OP)

Honestly, I don’t even know what that means. I like boobies. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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boofabeanydogburn@reddit

I don't care. I'm just saying it's gotta be more than 90% of posts asking about corporal punishment are fetishists looking for stories to goon to. I'm just talking facts. People should know there's a possibility before they recount stories of abuse

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NotSoF4stCvnt@reddit (OP)

Now that I think about it, I do like spanking women and getting spankings but I haven’t got any proper kit like that guy from fifty shades of grey, we just kinda improvise. It’s a spontaneous kinda thing you know.

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ActionBirbie@reddit

I’m assuming that the practice didn’t end bang on 1986.

No, it was banned in 1985 by the law.

It ended way, way before that in reality.

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Few_Scientist5381@reddit

No permission required, you were sent to the headmaster and he would wail on you, if you showed emotion you got it worse. You would get it in stages, first the palms of your hands, if you appeared again it was the back of the hands, then the back of the legs calf/thighs for a third visit, and your naked backside for a fourth visit, at fifteen+ if you had to visit, the Warden was sent for, and that was a straight up fist fight. A deputy headmaster set me up once and I ended up getting caned for it, the colour drained from his face when I bumped into him years later on a nature walk.

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Didymograptus2@reddit

At grammar school 70-73 (went comprehensive and co ed for the next 2 years) corporal punishment was common. The biology teacher would do spanking, generally on the younger boys, usually bare bottomed. The music and Latin teacher was especially violent using the “bacon slicer”, a ruler swiped across the bottom just catching the edge. Both were gay and repressed working in a boy’s school. The history teacher used to threaten with an outsized slipper and the chemistry teacher used a length of rubber Bunsen burner hose which he would swing onto the desk which a shout of “I’ll thrash you boy” but I never heard he actually used it.

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Numerous_Shallot373@reddit

I took an adult education class to learn a language, and all the other students were old farts like me. The very young teacher, who was from the appropriate European country, swung round from the whiteboard once whilst holding the board rubber. We all ducked. She was astonished and then horrified as we cheerfully explained ‘we thought you were going to throw it at us’. Normal school business in the 70s and 80s!

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QuarrieMcQuarrie@reddit

I started school in 75, never saw a cane although the vague threat of it existed in our heads.

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JamOverCream@reddit

I started school in 81 and never heard any mention of it.

My parents were in school in the 60s. My Dad was a bit of a rascal and got it a few times, he said the one time he got it across the palm of his hand was worse than all of the ones on the bum combined.

Apparently it only happened in the headmasters office.

Despite my mum never receiving it (at least that’s what she claimed) she never shied away from belting my brother and I with whatever was at hand.

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Glittering_Goblin@reddit

Scotland, late 70s early 80s, normal primary school, no permission, sent to headmaster's office and whipped with cane across palm

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Carlomahone@reddit

So I'm in my late 60's. I left school.in 1974. The slipper (or plimsoll) was used in Primary schools, I also saw a table tennis bat used for the same purpose. You had to have done something serious to have it meted out on you though at that age. I never saw any kind of corporal punishment in infants school. Secondary school was a different animal altogether. I went to the local secondary modern school. Corporal punishment was common. Not just dished out by the head either. The teachers could cane you too, for various misdemeanours, running in the corridors, smoking, swearing, being in the school building in break times etc. If anyone wants an insight then watch the film 'Kes'. There's a scene where the headmaster deals with the smokers. It's exactly how the process was.

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Victorius_Meldrus@reddit

Not caned, but had the metre rule across my hands a couple of times.

Called up to the front of the class.
"Hands, Mr Meldrus."
Hands out, palms up.
Thwack

Also had the classic heads knocked together, boxed ear, etc on a few occasions.

Now, I'm not necessarily advocating for the return of corporal punishment in schools (and maybe I'm an exception to the rule), but it hasn't caused me any long lasting harm or trauma. The only time it ever even crosses my mind is when the subject is brought up. I had completely forgotten about the heads thing until somebody else mentioned it in a comment.

I've got a couple of acquaintances who are teachers, and I hear some absolute horror stories from them about the way their pupils behave. As bad as some kids could be when I was at school, the way things are now appear to be on a completely different level.
Obviously, we're in a vastly different world to the world of the early-mid '80s. But I can't help feeling that the social/legal restrictions placed on meting out a minor amount of physical discipline towards unruly little shits has contributed in some degree to the behaviours we see in schools and town centres these days.

We were very aware that we would potentially face relatively harsh consequences for our actions if we chose to take the piss with our behaviour. Kids these days are basically untouchable, and they've got wise to that.

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Feisty-Lifeguard-550@reddit

No it was a strap that got used, no parents were notified and I saw people get the belt for stupid things cause the teacher was in a bad mood

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OccidentalTouriste@reddit

Had a female French teacher who for pretty much any infringement (real or perceived) would make you form your hand into a fist and then rap you across the knuckles with the edge of a wooden ruler.

Teacher at Primary school would throw wooden board dusters at pupils until the father of one victim beat him up in the corridor outside the classroom. Luckily there were interior windows onto the corridor so we got to see Mr. Griffiths get throttled.

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FrankyFistalot@reddit

Born in the late 60’s and in Infant’s school if you messed around you would get a 12 inch ruler across the back of your hand, in Junior school the punishments were varied.Plimsoll across your ass, cane across your palm numerous times by headteacher or there was a drama teacher who would hit you with a wooden sword named Excalibur….

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sihasihasi@reddit

In secondary school in the early 80's, I heard of a few kids getting the cane, but it was on the hands.

It may even have been a myth, but it was certainly talked about

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Competitive-Fact-820@reddit

Our school stopped corporal punishment in the summer of 1982.

Before that it was pretty teacher dependent as to what punishment was meted out.

Primary School for me was mainly at a Convent School and the nuns were crackshots with a board duster, used their hands to slap bare legs, used a metre rule to slap bare legs or if walking past you when you were misbehaving they would whip the sleeve of their habit across the back of your head - said sleeve had curtain weights sewn in to the hem.

At Secondary School for the brief time they allowed Corporal Punishment when I was there you got sent to see Mr Crisp who had a size 12 plimsoll to hit you with OR to the Deputy Head (Sister Mary Magdalen) who had a legitimate cane.

No parental consent was necessary.

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DrPig666@reddit

Me and another boy (4th form, 1980) got into a huge fight in at lunchtime in front of school right by the main entrance where passers by could see. Midway through the next lesson we were hauled out of class to see the deputy head for a verbal bollocking and 6 of the best. Caning was administered by the deputy head in his office and witnessed by deputy deputy head. No parental permission or other feedback to the parents was given. I never told my parents and they never found out. I became a fucking legend in school as the guy I beat was a notorious bully. Happy days.

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prustage@reddit

In my school, any teacher could whack you with a gym shoe or belt on the behind or a ruler on the palm of the hand. To be caned you would be sent to the head teacher and he would do it. The exception, in our school was the chemistry teacher who had a large stick which he would use to hit you across the back of the hand while it was resting on the table.

In each class, the teachers had their instruments hanging on the wall. Our biology teacher had about eight different types of shoes and belts and each one had a name. I remember "Percy" was a particularly painful old gym shoe that was used to "make you PERCYvere with your studies".

Our woodwork teacher was the only one that would actually take a run up. You would have to bend over and he would call out the "distance". This was the number of steps back he would take before running at you and thwacking you.

And no, permission was never sought from parents and they were not generally informed by anyone except the child themselves.

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Overall_Formal7971@reddit

I got the belt - leather strap across the palm of the hands when I was 8 for laughing in an assembly at a friend farting. Scotland 1970s.

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Callis_tow@reddit

My junior school in the '70s had an old military type headmaster. He was really strict, but very fair, and would dole out either spangles if you were good, or a wallop on the backside with a plimsoll if you were a little shit. No parental permission was required. The likelihood was that if you got the plimsoll, you'd already been pulled up for bad behaviour, and had carried on being naughty. It was a last resort really.

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GabberZZ@reddit

A mate and I got the slipper across the headmasters knee for the heinous crime of running in the corridor. We were 9.

Although rumours abounded of the cane in high school in the early 80s I don't recall anyone I knew being the recipient.

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rainbow84uk@reddit

Born in 1984, so I started primary school just after the ban. There was no caning, but a couple of the older teachers physically punished kids, e.g. hitting their knuckles with a wooden ruler, grabbing them by the ear, or slapping their face. Both of them retired during my time there.

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VastInvestment2735@reddit

If you got the cane went home and complained about it more than likely you'd get a slap from whichever parent you confided in.

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Peskycat42@reddit

Anyone else seeing (and in my case remembering a common theme here?)

Corporal punishment was most prevalent in Primary schools, not Secondary.

I was born in 66, so left school in 82

Head master of Primary school would slipper without prior notification to parents. In those days, in loco parentis ruled.

I dont remember anything of the sort in Secondary, by then it was detention and lines.

So it seems we were more likely to hit little kids than the big ones?

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taknyos@reddit

Yeah, my mum (born in the 50s) said the cane was very common in primary school. It wasn't a thing at high school but she remembers a few teachers hitting kids with the wooden chalk duster, usually on the knuckles.

The things they got caned for at primary school was crazy. She got caned many times for writing with her left hand, beating a 5-10 year old for that is ridiculous.

She cried one day because she missed her twin sister (who was sick) and the teacher caned her for it. Some of the teachers were sick.

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CrazyLadyBlues@reddit

Big kids might hit back.

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ChoakIsland@reddit

I had a cricket bat flush across the back of the top of my legs. I was wearing shorts. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

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Grand_Phrase810@reddit

I've had quite in-depth conversations with my parents and grandparents around this. My grandmother was at school between 1938-1946, and was caned once for 'lying' (she claimed to be able to read at age 5, and the teacher found that such an absurd concept she had her punished for lying). My father was at school between 1950-1961, and he was caned several times.

In my grandmother's case, she was sent out of the room and made to walk to the headmaster's office, tell him she was there to be caned, receive the punishment, then walk back. In my father's case, some teachers would cane him themselves in class, others would send him to the headmaster. My father also describes other physical punishments, such as having board erasers lobbed at him, or having his knuckles rapped.

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60sstuff@reddit

My school St James Senior Boys school was one of the last in the country to get rid of it. What resulted was a massive lawsuit over abuse etc etc. When we asked one of the Teachers there about it who had been teaching since the 70s he seemed to just shrug it off.

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Vertigo_uk123@reddit

Not the cane but in primary school we were shit scared of being sent to the head as he had an Alsatian that would sit in the corner and growl at you.

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Monkeyboogaloo@reddit

There was no parental permission sought! You misbeaved you got the cane. It was just accepted.

Sent to the head masters office and just you and him in a room with him caning you.

In primary school I was put over the knee of a teacher and spanked because my spelling was bad. It was the 70s and they chose not to recognise dyslexia at the time, or at any point in my school years through to the mid eighties.

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SimpleExpress2323@reddit

I was a little shit in school and regularly got smacked at school, usually in class, sometimes by the head in her (later his) office.

The head also caned me on a few occasions, on the palms of my hands with a literal cane, thin and bendy and hurt like hell.

Once or twice I got a ruler round the ears.

I also remember having to stand outside the headmistress' office for virtually the whole day (no lunch, go hungry) in bare feet on the tiled floor in winter after I chucked plastercine at one of my mates in the first class of the day. That was actually worse than a smack as it seemed endless.

The law was passed in June 1986 and came into force a year later but I remember our school imposing their own ban after Easter 1986. My teacher told us when we came back how wrong it was to smack children at school which was bollocks as he happily whacked me all over the place weeks before.

As for parental awareness, I generally didn't tell my parents if I'd been smacked at school as I would have got a smack for it anyway..

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heidivodka@reddit

My dad was born in 54. Objects that were used are as follows: ruler on knuckles, board duster / plimsole chucked at someone talking, cane and Bunsen burner rubber tube use to whip your arse.

When the rubber tube was used you could hear it whistling before it hit you.

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LocalMendicant@reddit

In Derbyshire the cane had gone by the time I started secondary in 1979 - I think some time in the mid 70s. However I received a slap on bare legs in infant school from the headmistress and I saw several other kids slapped too in infants and juniors (we had to wear shorts - our head was very old fashioned). We had one teacher who would make kids stand in a chair hands in the air for 30 minutes and if their arms lowered they got a slap. At secondary there was no official corporal punishment but it didn't stop some teachers smacking kids round the head, throwing board rubbers at them or in one case pinning a kid up against the wall.

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