Story from Roue 07.
Caning as punishment
An account of some disciplinary methods in a South African girls school
There are many different views about what constitutes a sound spanking. For some a few smacks with the hand or a hair brush is sufficient. For others three or four cuts with the cane will suffice. Yet again there are people who would regard such mild treatment as ludicrous and nothing like adequate punishment. If punishment is given in all seriousness, and not as some kind of play-acting, then it must be severe, though it must be administered in a just manner.
This latter view is held by many strict disciplinarians who feel that much that is written about corporal punishment is unrealistic. One such lady has agreed to put forward her attitude and to relate some of her experiences. As she spent a long time in South Africa, a country well-known to be strict in the administration of justice and punishment, her remarks will be particularly pertinent and likely to throw considerable light on the subject. While not every one will agree with her, we feel that what she has to say is both interesting and relevant.
She is a widow in her late fifties and worked for many years as a teacher in Pretoria. During her last eight years there she was the Deputy Headmistress of a senior girls seminary. The pupils were white, of course, and of predominantly Dutch extraction, a people noted for their strong, puritan views and disciplined life.
She states that many people may not be aware that corporal punishment is still widely retained in South African schools and, at the discretion of the school governors, may be employed to correct wrongdoers of both sexes.
As she was raised in a well-disciplined environment herself, where defiant or unruly behaviour by herself or her sisters inevitably earned them a good whipping, she is a confirmed believer in the benefits of a sound thrashing for miscreant children.
She states, quite categorically, that in her experience, contrary to the views of so-called progressive educationalists, that most children and adolescents respond quickly and effectively to a painful spanking on the backside, providing they know why they are being punished and that justice is metered out fairly.
Here is what she has to say on the subject in her own words, in which she makes a strong case for the punishment aspects of spanking.
I am fully aware of the erotic interest that many men find in the subject of spanking and as a woman I cannot ignore the sensual attraction of the female bottom, but it is plainly apparent that the punishment view of spanking is only secondary to the erotic pleasure they are seeking. I am not a prig and I do not deny these erotic instincts. It would be hypocritical of me to do so. However, it is the punishment element in which I am most interested and it is about this which I wish to write.
A spanking or whipping must hurt to be effective. It must be inflicted to the point where it becomes unbearable. On the other hand, it must be stopped before there is any chance of doing serious injury to the person being punished.
It is for this reason that the buttocks are best suited as the place of chastisement for they are resilient and quickly recover in normal circumstances. They can be beaten quite hard, much harder than most unenlightened people may think, and because they are also quite sensitive, the punishment can be made to hurt as it should, and hurt abominably! Fortunately, the fierce unbearable pain is short-lived, and diminishes considerably after the cessation of the whipping, to a more tolerable though still uncomfortable level.
In my school, the youngest girls were 12 and the eldest approaching 18 – all boarders and well catered for in all matters of welfare. Those that behaved well had nothing to fear, but those who didn't were given punishment of a severity that generally assured a marked improvement in their behaviour very quickly. We employed two instruments of chastisement, the leather strap (similar to the Scottish tawse) and the rattan cane. The teaching staff were authorised to use the strap for routine cases of discipline or unruliness, in the classroom, but caning was restricted to myself or the Head and would be inflicted privately in the Punishment Room adjacent to my study. Canings were awarded for persistent misbehaviour or for more serious offences such as foul language, stealing, bodily assault, drug-taking, etc. Active lesbian or other forbidden sexual practices automatically merited a caning of extreme severity, and after this it was rare that a girl would commit a similar offence again.
In class the strap could be administered on the seat of a girl's knickers or if her teacher felt justified she could beat the pupil on the bare flesh. The maximum number of strokes allowed in this manner was twenty, but sentences were left to the discretion of each mistress. Class punishments were undignified as well as painful of course, for the miscreant would have her bottom strapped in full view of a dozen or more of her classmates, Usually she was held across a desk at the front of the class where the sight of her taut knickers (or bare seat, if the occasion warranted) being loudly and thoroughly thrashed had an intentionally sobering effect on any other would-be offenders. On these occasions a hushed silence would prevail, broken only by the loud cries and wails of the suffering culprit squirming across the desk.
On the other hand, a caning in the Punishment Room was always administered on the naked buttocks, in private. The Head was generally happy to delegate this task, when it was necessary, to myself and I don't deny that I invariably made a much better job of it. If one is talking seriously about a punishment whipping rigorously carried out, anyone who believes a girl will simply bend over and remain in position while the cane is laid on with full force is either ignorant or foolishly misled. My Punishment Room housed a small whipping horse which enabled the wrists, ankles and knees of the culprit to be secured with appropriately positioned straps riveted to the supporting legs. The horse itself was an old gymnasium item lowered and modified for the purpose, and when a girl was properly mounted she may have been reluctant and unhappy to find herself in such a revealing and helpless position but because of the padded upper surface she was not in any undue discomfort. I liked the horse because no amount of writhing or jerking, inevitable during a caning, would harm the girl's bare hips and tummy as they moved about on the padded leather.
As I said previously, a girl would only be awarded the cane for a serious offence, so it was mandatory that the whippings were appropriately severe and painful. They were intended to be, as a mild thrashing, in my view, would be quite ineffective and fail to have the permanent deterrent effect that was needed. The lightest sentence was 15 strokes of the cane, but 20 or 25 were more often given, and once I administered 30 strokes to an 18 year old who after two previous offences was discovered on a third occasion to be interfering sexually with young girls. She was also expelled afterwards as being a totally incorrigible and incurable lesbian.
I would like to describe the caning procedure which I normally adopted as it may be of interest to other disciplinarians.
The commission of any crime would first receive a full hearing of all the facts, and if I judged the offender guilty, a caning sentence was awarded. This would be administered after supper at 7.30 pm., when the culprit reported to my study. My reputation and ability with the cane was well known to all the pupils so the girl in question was usually more than a little nervous, blanched somewhat, and often visibly quaking. I would then instruct her to enter the Punishment Room and follow her, locking the door behind me. (It was not unknown for a girl's courage to fail her before mounting the horse, causing her to run to the door seeking escape. Locking the door precluded this eventuality.)
Inside, the girl was ordered to take off her pleated grey gymslip, fold it neatly, hand it to me which I then placed on a chair near the door. I never removed more of a girl's clothes than necessary and without gymslip the girl would be left clad in her short waist-length cotton blouse, black viyella knickers (all pupils were required to wear standard undergarments), dark-tone tights and lace up shoes. She would be told to stand facing the horse while I obtained the cane from a cabinet where several were kept, and then instructed her to climb across the horse and lie in the appropriate position. Any tardiness at this point was quickly dispelled with a deft cut across her calves. This made a reluctant culprit mount the contraption with some alacrity after which I made her fast with the straps buckled firmly around her wrists, knees and ankles.
I was aware that this part of the preparations was unnerving for the culprit, but necessary to prevent her leaping up or turning round during the caning, which could lead to possible injury of more vital parts. Once immobilized, I then proceeded to uncover her buttocks by taking down the girl's tights and knickers, well below the target area and as far down her legs as the straps around her knees would allow. In my view, the 'horsed' position is the nearest to the ideal presentation for an effective and painful caning. The doubled over position raises the backside into maximum prominence and causes a pronounced backward thrust that tautens and distends the buttocks in the most vulnerable manner. The position is a most ungracious one for any young lady to have to adopt since it unfortunately separates the stretched bottom cheeks and immodestly exposes her very private parts. If one intends to make the caning severe, and make it painfully effective, such immodest exposure cannot be avoided and this is why the cane was always administered privately between the walls of the Punishment Room. The indecency of a girl's position never offended me. Any young miss finding herself in this room was there for some form of gross misbehaviour, and I had no pity for her predicament! She was there to be punished and drastically so, and my feelings as a no-nonsense disciplinarian were those which produced an innate sense of satisfaction with the system that allowed me to administer the one form of punishment that produces the proper degree of regret in a girl for her bad behaviour.
Before commencing the caning I always took a few moments to study the field of operation very thoroughly, mentally assessing the size, texture and resilience of the two fleshy moons awaiting penance. As an experienced chastener, I am well aware of the most sensitive parts of a girl's bottom to strokes of the cane, but to administer for example, a twenty five stroke caning of maximum severity without unduly damaging or breaking the skin calls for a considerable amount of care and skill, and to some extent a pre-planned schedule of where one is going to place all the strokes.
After this short assessment I would then take up a position to the miscreant's left side, at the right distance to enable me to deliver a full-armed swing with the cane. Placing the end half of the long rod horizontally against that part of the taut cheeks I intended to strike, and ignoring the inevitable flinching of the flesh, I would raise the cane far back on high and deliver the first whistling cut with deliberate ferocity and force! The explosive crack of a flexible cane travelling at high speed as it connects with a properly presented pair of naked buttocks never fails to impress me. The effect is dramatic and astounding! One sees the thin, hard rod almost enveloped for a split second by the soft yielding flesh, then as the cane is lifted away, the momentary white impression across the reverberating mounds becomes a bright crimson. The success of the stroke is measured by the anguished scream it produces and the simultaneous writhing and squirming of the whipped backside. If I do not think the vocal protest is sufficiently loud, or if the girl's bottom fails to perform those adequately frenzied contortions, then I know that an even harder stroke is called for and adjust the infliction accordingly.
A thrashing, to be really effective should be systematically performed with timing, force and precision. The entire surface of the buttocks should be methodically whipped from just below the tailbone to no more than one inch below the gluteal area adjoining the thighs. In the transverse direction it is desirable that the striking end of the cane does not extend further round the body than the hip bone joints. With precision and care it is possible to convert the whole expanse of chastisable bottom into a uniform sheet of intense crimson, a mass of closely spaced cane weals that I guarantee will produce the most excrutiatingly painful behind conceivable.
When I cane a girl I invariably achieve this effect by dint of patience and a relentless determination to place every stroke where I want it to fall. This is very important, to place the strokes accurately. If the whipper does not do this properly the strokes will be applied wildly and likely to cause unwarranted damage to the victim's bottom, while at the same time failing to cover the whole expanse. It seems obvious that if the proper procedure is not carried out then some parts of the buttocks will receive an excessive amount of punishment, while the remainder will be scarcely touched.
To achieve my aim I ignore the unpleasant assault of the girl's screams on my ears, and the abandoned convulsions of her well-whipped hindquarters, waiting calmly for movement to subside before applying the next stroke. This is not to say that I am not impressed by the intense reactions the rod has aroused. They are necessary and satisfying and signify that the caning is having the desired effect.
The incredible gymnastics of a bound girl over a whipping horse, having her bare buttocks severely caned can even be quite awe-inspiring at times. Within the restrictions imposed by the straps, which clamp her arms and legs, her naked buttocks can become a veritable frenzy of jerking, twisting movement. This is no doubt one of the features which adds so much interest to the act of spanking.
In addition, the increasing degree to which the gluteal flesh undergoes spasmodic muscular contractions, as the whipping proceeds, is visibly reflected in the shivering ripples which run up and the taut flinching cheeks, before and after each stroke of the cane.
Sometimes there is an even more dramatic effect on the nerves and flesh of a teenage girl as she feels the agonising rod against her tender bottom. The combined stress of fear and pain can cause a girl to lose her self control. I have seen a number of young ladies reach this state to such a degree that they lose the contents of their bladders and urinate uncontrollably during a caning. I have no wish to offend anyone by revealing this unusual response to corporal punishment but I feel I have to mention it in the interests of understanding more about the effects which can arise, although rarely, when the recipient of a caning is an unusually sensitive or nervous subject. If note is taken at the time of this phenomenon it can be avoided on a future occasion by ensuring that the miscreant goes to the lavatory before she receives her punishment.
After I had completed a caning, the girl in question was always made to remain on the horse for a further ten minutes or so. This was in order that she could regain her composure, have time to stop any crying and howling she may have been indulging in and, most important, to give her time, in a most humiliating position, to reflect on her misdeeds and the punishment she had so richly deserved.
When I was satisfied that sufficient time had elapsed and that she had suffered enough pain to ensure her repentance and fervent resolve never to give cause for another visit to the punishment room I would release her. But before doing so I would apply some relief by applying a cooling ointment to her chastened buttocks.
I believe that this close personal contact with the girl helped her to understand because she then knew that I cared for her and that any punishment she was awarded was just; I do not bear any resentment towards her. She is in my charge, she has done wrong, she must bear her punishment but over-riding all the pain and humiliation she has suffered is the fact that it is all for her own good. It is my duty to discipline her, one I cannot flinch from. It grieves me to have to deal out punishment to my charges but I could not in all conscience allow that to influence my judgement in the interests of justice. In time those girls came to realise the truth of this and many of them thanked me for the way in which they had been treated.
Any sensitive, intelligent girl will learn that a strict regime is necessary for her eventual well-being. It is just not possible for them to grow up into well-behaved, decorous young ladies, capable of living in a civilised manner in a civilised society, if they are not taught and disciplined properly.
The application of corporal punishment, carried out under proper supervision, in a firm but just way is essential and I am convinced that any such action I have taken has helped in some way to avoid a more serious delinquency. Most of my pupils have eventually realised the truth of this proposition. They know in their heart of hearts that I had helped them.
The campaign to abolish corporal punishment in British schools is sadly misguided. Unfortunately, discipline has become a dirty word, and if the strap and the cane finally disappear, we will live to regret it. The writing is already on the wall as more permissiveness and lack of discipline and respect for properly constituted authority leads to a breakdown in society. The proof of this is the vast increase in vandalism, hooliganism and general disregard for the rules at the present time.
Caning as punishment
An account of some disciplinary methods in a South African girls school
There are many different views about what constitutes a sound spanking. For some a few smacks with the hand or a hair brush is sufficient. For others three or four cuts with the cane will suffice. Yet again there are people who would regard such mild treatment as ludicrous and nothing like adequate punishment. If punishment is given in all seriousness, and not as some kind of play-acting, then it must be severe, though it must be administered in a just manner.
This latter view is held by many strict disciplinarians who feel that much that is written about corporal punishment is unrealistic. One such lady has agreed to put forward her attitude and to relate some of her experiences. As she spent a long time in South Africa, a country well-known to be strict in the administration of justice and punishment, her remarks will be particularly pertinent and likely to throw considerable light on the subject. While not every one will agree with her, we feel that what she has to say is both interesting and relevant.
She is a widow in her late fifties and worked for many years as a teacher in Pretoria. During her last eight years there she was the Deputy Headmistress of a senior girls seminary. The pupils were white, of course, and of predominantly Dutch extraction, a people noted for their strong, puritan views and disciplined life.
She states that many people may not be aware that corporal punishment is still widely retained in South African schools and, at the discretion of the school governors, may be employed to correct wrongdoers of both sexes.
As she was raised in a well-disciplined environment herself, where defiant or unruly behaviour by herself or her sisters inevitably earned them a good whipping, she is a confirmed believer in the benefits of a sound thrashing for miscreant children.
She states, quite categorically, that in her experience, contrary to the views of so-called progressive educationalists, that most children and adolescents respond quickly and effectively to a painful spanking on the backside, providing they know why they are being punished and that justice is metered out fairly.
Here is what she has to say on the subject in her own words, in which she makes a strong case for the punishment aspects of spanking.
I am fully aware of the erotic interest that many men find in the subject of spanking and as a woman I cannot ignore the sensual attraction of the female bottom, but it is plainly apparent that the punishment view of spanking is only secondary to the erotic pleasure they are seeking. I am not a prig and I do not deny these erotic instincts. It would be hypocritical of me to do so. However, it is the punishment element in which I am most interested and it is about this which I wish to write.
A spanking or whipping must hurt to be effective. It must be inflicted to the point where it becomes unbearable. On the other hand, it must be stopped before there is any chance of doing serious injury to the person being punished.
It is for this reason that the buttocks are best suited as the place of chastisement for they are resilient and quickly recover in normal circumstances. They can be beaten quite hard, much harder than most unenlightened people may think, and because they are also quite sensitive, the punishment can be made to hurt as it should, and hurt abominably! Fortunately, the fierce unbearable pain is short-lived, and diminishes considerably after the cessation of the whipping, to a more tolerable though still uncomfortable level.
In my school, the youngest girls were 12 and the eldest approaching 18 – all boarders and well catered for in all matters of welfare. Those that behaved well had nothing to fear, but those who didn't were given punishment of a severity that generally assured a marked improvement in their behaviour very quickly. We employed two instruments of chastisement, the leather strap (similar to the Scottish tawse) and the rattan cane. The teaching staff were authorised to use the strap for routine cases of discipline or unruliness, in the classroom, but caning was restricted to myself or the Head and would be inflicted privately in the Punishment Room adjacent to my study. Canings were awarded for persistent misbehaviour or for more serious offences such as foul language, stealing, bodily assault, drug-taking, etc. Active lesbian or other forbidden sexual practices automatically merited a caning of extreme severity, and after this it was rare that a girl would commit a similar offence again.
In class the strap could be administered on the seat of a girl's knickers or if her teacher felt justified she could beat the pupil on the bare flesh. The maximum number of strokes allowed in this manner was twenty, but sentences were left to the discretion of each mistress. Class punishments were undignified as well as painful of course, for the miscreant would have her bottom strapped in full view of a dozen or more of her classmates, Usually she was held across a desk at the front of the class where the sight of her taut knickers (or bare seat, if the occasion warranted) being loudly and thoroughly thrashed had an intentionally sobering effect on any other would-be offenders. On these occasions a hushed silence would prevail, broken only by the loud cries and wails of the suffering culprit squirming across the desk.
On the other hand, a caning in the Punishment Room was always administered on the naked buttocks, in private. The Head was generally happy to delegate this task, when it was necessary, to myself and I don't deny that I invariably made a much better job of it. If one is talking seriously about a punishment whipping rigorously carried out, anyone who believes a girl will simply bend over and remain in position while the cane is laid on with full force is either ignorant or foolishly misled. My Punishment Room housed a small whipping horse which enabled the wrists, ankles and knees of the culprit to be secured with appropriately positioned straps riveted to the supporting legs. The horse itself was an old gymnasium item lowered and modified for the purpose, and when a girl was properly mounted she may have been reluctant and unhappy to find herself in such a revealing and helpless position but because of the padded upper surface she was not in any undue discomfort. I liked the horse because no amount of writhing or jerking, inevitable during a caning, would harm the girl's bare hips and tummy as they moved about on the padded leather.
As I said previously, a girl would only be awarded the cane for a serious offence, so it was mandatory that the whippings were appropriately severe and painful. They were intended to be, as a mild thrashing, in my view, would be quite ineffective and fail to have the permanent deterrent effect that was needed. The lightest sentence was 15 strokes of the cane, but 20 or 25 were more often given, and once I administered 30 strokes to an 18 year old who after two previous offences was discovered on a third occasion to be interfering sexually with young girls. She was also expelled afterwards as being a totally incorrigible and incurable lesbian.
I would like to describe the caning procedure which I normally adopted as it may be of interest to other disciplinarians.
The commission of any crime would first receive a full hearing of all the facts, and if I judged the offender guilty, a caning sentence was awarded. This would be administered after supper at 7.30 pm., when the culprit reported to my study. My reputation and ability with the cane was well known to all the pupils so the girl in question was usually more than a little nervous, blanched somewhat, and often visibly quaking. I would then instruct her to enter the Punishment Room and follow her, locking the door behind me. (It was not unknown for a girl's courage to fail her before mounting the horse, causing her to run to the door seeking escape. Locking the door precluded this eventuality.)
Inside, the girl was ordered to take off her pleated grey gymslip, fold it neatly, hand it to me which I then placed on a chair near the door. I never removed more of a girl's clothes than necessary and without gymslip the girl would be left clad in her short waist-length cotton blouse, black viyella knickers (all pupils were required to wear standard undergarments), dark-tone tights and lace up shoes. She would be told to stand facing the horse while I obtained the cane from a cabinet where several were kept, and then instructed her to climb across the horse and lie in the appropriate position. Any tardiness at this point was quickly dispelled with a deft cut across her calves. This made a reluctant culprit mount the contraption with some alacrity after which I made her fast with the straps buckled firmly around her wrists, knees and ankles.
I was aware that this part of the preparations was unnerving for the culprit, but necessary to prevent her leaping up or turning round during the caning, which could lead to possible injury of more vital parts. Once immobilized, I then proceeded to uncover her buttocks by taking down the girl's tights and knickers, well below the target area and as far down her legs as the straps around her knees would allow. In my view, the 'horsed' position is the nearest to the ideal presentation for an effective and painful caning. The doubled over position raises the backside into maximum prominence and causes a pronounced backward thrust that tautens and distends the buttocks in the most vulnerable manner. The position is a most ungracious one for any young lady to have to adopt since it unfortunately separates the stretched bottom cheeks and immodestly exposes her very private parts. If one intends to make the caning severe, and make it painfully effective, such immodest exposure cannot be avoided and this is why the cane was always administered privately between the walls of the Punishment Room. The indecency of a girl's position never offended me. Any young miss finding herself in this room was there for some form of gross misbehaviour, and I had no pity for her predicament! She was there to be punished and drastically so, and my feelings as a no-nonsense disciplinarian were those which produced an innate sense of satisfaction with the system that allowed me to administer the one form of punishment that produces the proper degree of regret in a girl for her bad behaviour.
Before commencing the caning I always took a few moments to study the field of operation very thoroughly, mentally assessing the size, texture and resilience of the two fleshy moons awaiting penance. As an experienced chastener, I am well aware of the most sensitive parts of a girl's bottom to strokes of the cane, but to administer for example, a twenty five stroke caning of maximum severity without unduly damaging or breaking the skin calls for a considerable amount of care and skill, and to some extent a pre-planned schedule of where one is going to place all the strokes.
After this short assessment I would then take up a position to the miscreant's left side, at the right distance to enable me to deliver a full-armed swing with the cane. Placing the end half of the long rod horizontally against that part of the taut cheeks I intended to strike, and ignoring the inevitable flinching of the flesh, I would raise the cane far back on high and deliver the first whistling cut with deliberate ferocity and force! The explosive crack of a flexible cane travelling at high speed as it connects with a properly presented pair of naked buttocks never fails to impress me. The effect is dramatic and astounding! One sees the thin, hard rod almost enveloped for a split second by the soft yielding flesh, then as the cane is lifted away, the momentary white impression across the reverberating mounds becomes a bright crimson. The success of the stroke is measured by the anguished scream it produces and the simultaneous writhing and squirming of the whipped backside. If I do not think the vocal protest is sufficiently loud, or if the girl's bottom fails to perform those adequately frenzied contortions, then I know that an even harder stroke is called for and adjust the infliction accordingly.
A thrashing, to be really effective should be systematically performed with timing, force and precision. The entire surface of the buttocks should be methodically whipped from just below the tailbone to no more than one inch below the gluteal area adjoining the thighs. In the transverse direction it is desirable that the striking end of the cane does not extend further round the body than the hip bone joints. With precision and care it is possible to convert the whole expanse of chastisable bottom into a uniform sheet of intense crimson, a mass of closely spaced cane weals that I guarantee will produce the most excrutiatingly painful behind conceivable.
When I cane a girl I invariably achieve this effect by dint of patience and a relentless determination to place every stroke where I want it to fall. This is very important, to place the strokes accurately. If the whipper does not do this properly the strokes will be applied wildly and likely to cause unwarranted damage to the victim's bottom, while at the same time failing to cover the whole expanse. It seems obvious that if the proper procedure is not carried out then some parts of the buttocks will receive an excessive amount of punishment, while the remainder will be scarcely touched.
To achieve my aim I ignore the unpleasant assault of the girl's screams on my ears, and the abandoned convulsions of her well-whipped hindquarters, waiting calmly for movement to subside before applying the next stroke. This is not to say that I am not impressed by the intense reactions the rod has aroused. They are necessary and satisfying and signify that the caning is having the desired effect.
The incredible gymnastics of a bound girl over a whipping horse, having her bare buttocks severely caned can even be quite awe-inspiring at times. Within the restrictions imposed by the straps, which clamp her arms and legs, her naked buttocks can become a veritable frenzy of jerking, twisting movement. This is no doubt one of the features which adds so much interest to the act of spanking.
In addition, the increasing degree to which the gluteal flesh undergoes spasmodic muscular contractions, as the whipping proceeds, is visibly reflected in the shivering ripples which run up and the taut flinching cheeks, before and after each stroke of the cane.
Sometimes there is an even more dramatic effect on the nerves and flesh of a teenage girl as she feels the agonising rod against her tender bottom. The combined stress of fear and pain can cause a girl to lose her self control. I have seen a number of young ladies reach this state to such a degree that they lose the contents of their bladders and urinate uncontrollably during a caning. I have no wish to offend anyone by revealing this unusual response to corporal punishment but I feel I have to mention it in the interests of understanding more about the effects which can arise, although rarely, when the recipient of a caning is an unusually sensitive or nervous subject. If note is taken at the time of this phenomenon it can be avoided on a future occasion by ensuring that the miscreant goes to the lavatory before she receives her punishment.
After I had completed a caning, the girl in question was always made to remain on the horse for a further ten minutes or so. This was in order that she could regain her composure, have time to stop any crying and howling she may have been indulging in and, most important, to give her time, in a most humiliating position, to reflect on her misdeeds and the punishment she had so richly deserved.
When I was satisfied that sufficient time had elapsed and that she had suffered enough pain to ensure her repentance and fervent resolve never to give cause for another visit to the punishment room I would release her. But before doing so I would apply some relief by applying a cooling ointment to her chastened buttocks.
I believe that this close personal contact with the girl helped her to understand because she then knew that I cared for her and that any punishment she was awarded was just; I do not bear any resentment towards her. She is in my charge, she has done wrong, she must bear her punishment but over-riding all the pain and humiliation she has suffered is the fact that it is all for her own good. It is my duty to discipline her, one I cannot flinch from. It grieves me to have to deal out punishment to my charges but I could not in all conscience allow that to influence my judgement in the interests of justice. In time those girls came to realise the truth of this and many of them thanked me for the way in which they had been treated.
Any sensitive, intelligent girl will learn that a strict regime is necessary for her eventual well-being. It is just not possible for them to grow up into well-behaved, decorous young ladies, capable of living in a civilised manner in a civilised society, if they are not taught and disciplined properly.
The application of corporal punishment, carried out under proper supervision, in a firm but just way is essential and I am convinced that any such action I have taken has helped in some way to avoid a more serious delinquency. Most of my pupils have eventually realised the truth of this proposition. They know in their heart of hearts that I had helped them.
The campaign to abolish corporal punishment in British schools is sadly misguided. Unfortunately, discipline has become a dirty word, and if the strap and the cane finally disappear, we will live to regret it. The writing is already on the wall as more permissiveness and lack of discipline and respect for properly constituted authority leads to a breakdown in society. The proof of this is the vast increase in vandalism, hooliganism and general disregard for the rules at the present time.
Such a great site thank you.
ReplyDeleteHarry Bunte