Was caned every Sunday for a term at boarding school in Africa for refusing to attend the church service. We all had been skipping the service the previous term, so with the new term they took a roll call at the church and all the miscreants were duly flogged (six of the so called best) in front of the school at Sunday lunch.

The next week at the Sunday lunch the headmaster told all those who had not attended the service to stand, which I did.

Much to my surprise I was the only one because I knew of at least a dozen who hadn’t gone. This continued for the rest of the term, each Sunday I stood up and I got flogged.

It stopped when my housemaster thought to ask me why. He couldn’t understand why I was admitting it. At that age I was naive enough to believe you should never lie, even to save yourself, so I explained that to him, and that it was an Anglican service and they had bishops whereas I came from a Presbyterian background. To me the canings were simply because the agents of the devil were doing his evil work.

To a certain extent it worked. It knocked all religion out of me and I gained a strong contempt for authority which needs to use force or requires worshipping.

Which is probably why I got the strap so often when I returned to Scottish schools. The strap is worse than a caning, but neither work if you are not scared of a bit of temporary pain.

Got the cane twice, very early on when I started secondary school, in all fairness I deserved it as I was a gobby Sh**.
It did not affect me that much as don’t remember changing my ways, it wasn’t like I went to some tough inner school hellhole (it was leafy surrey) and I didn’t really change my ways until may late 20’s/early 30’s anyway so I would say its effect was very, very minimal.

Yeah we had a lot of nutters at our School, but our teachers didn’t shout or make us feel stupid. And were happy to explain things if we were willing to listen, if we were seen to be getting frustrated, you were told to either go and have a cig (if you smoked) and take 10 mins and come back and it worked. We didn’t have detentions either.
My Dad has just retired and has hated it the last few years as their all gobby, spoilt bratts in his words. Yet the kids he used to teach around my age have give him praise and again have done well in life.

I was shocked the other day when a 15 year old kid told my missus to **** off because she called him disgusting for spitting. I wouldn’t of even dared tell anyone older than me to f off at that age. Cocky kid, short of a good slap.

Just the once for fighting in the playground, but the mental torture was almost as bad as the physical pain. Got told I was getting the cane and to report to the staffroom in 2 days time during dinner. When the time arrived I was kept waiting for most of dinner time before Mr Whittle called me in to the staffroom, full of teachers in capes and you could cut through the smoke with a knife. 3 or 4 canes were hanging off a beam and he took each one down in turn, flexed it, swished it around a bit before he settled on his weapon of choice. Then he told me to touch my toes which I did – No boy, not there, by the window so I can see better! So trying to hold back the tears I got in the right position and got a right whack from the cane. Didn’t tell my parents as I’d have got into further trouble at home, in those days the attitude of most parents was if you got the cane you must have deserved it.

I was the last year of corporal punishment, as i left school it was banned. I got caned, slippered, rulered, got whacked with the black board rubber – and i wasn’t really naughty. Had a geography teacher who made a kid stand with his arms both horizontal at shoulder height and the teacher screamed at him if they lowered – the kid ended up in tears – it looked pretty painful, worse than the cane.

BigDummy – Member
I did not. And yet I still pay a fortune to be tied up and beaten by women dressed as nazi officers. Pity.

actually this is true for me though ive never had to pay 👿

I was mostly a swot tbh but once..
Biology teacher was also girls PE teacher
mucking around in biology me and james ward got detention, he was really pleased, I soon found out why…
detention meant staying behind for an hour while teacher ran after school girls trampolening club, a lot of the girls were from the years above. Best Detention Ever

I was quite fortunate in that corporal punishment was abolished just as I started high school so was largely immune to it. There was a few of the teachers, however, who struggled to adjust to the new fangled methods of teaching without beating which resulted in me being strewn across the classroom into a couple of desks on more than one occasion.

At primary school (so in the three tier school system, that’s ages 5-9) I had a pencil fight with a friend. He super sharpened his pencil and stabbed me in the arm with it. I retaliated with my blunt pencil. He then re-sharpened his pencil and got me again in the arm. A teacher then appeared at which point the friend burst into tears. I was canned on the back of the hand by the head or deputy head in his office. Had no effect on me, well, other than to strengthen my resolve not to let the bastards grind me down. I learnt very early in life that right, wrong, facts and truth often play a back-seat to who complains loudest. I still have the two pencil leads embedded in my arm from where the friend snapped them off.

When I started high school in 1978 (aged 13) it was the last year of canning in government schools in our area. One boy in our year did get the cane, for which the whole school was assembled to witness.

Edit: I did have a bonkers R.E. teacher in high school whose favourite tricks were:

A: Creeping up behind someone who was busy chatting and smashing hem over the head with his large and heavy Old Testament often knocking them off the stool they were sat on (we hand R.E. in the science block).

and/or

B: Launching the wooden blackboard eraser at errant pupils.

Mr. Nancaro (sp?) how on earth did you get any job anywhere near vulnerable (by definition) children?

yep, when I was 11 in 1981 for calling the music teacher a silly cow. I still remember being in the headmasters office quite clearly, some patronising twit going on about how we should have respect for the school blah blah… taking the cane off the hook on the wall and leaving it on the corner of his desk. I was told to take two steps forward, bend over and look up out of the window… good grief this bloke would be on peado watch these days. 1st whack didn’t hurt at all but the 2nd one struck in exactly the same place and did sting a bit. Left a big red stripe across the back of my legs for about a week. The only thing it changed about my behaviour was to be more careful when and where I messed about and to make sure I didn’t get caught in future, which I didn’t…

We had a teacher who liked to demonstrate ‘the difference between champagne and real pain’

He’d grab the errant pupil’s hair, right by the ear where the hair ends and the sideburn starts. He’d then pull it downwards telling you that was champagne (ie sham as in fake). He’d then pull it up which does smart, declaring ‘now that’s what real pain tastes like’

This thread explains why there are so many angry, argumentative types on here….

For the record I was never got the cane or even a punishment exercise at school.

Before he retired, Dad was head of school for a rather large inner city comp in Birmingham.

I used to help him when he took a load of pupils on educational trips to York and always remember being in one of the carriage compartments with some of his kids and being asked –

“Are you Mr. Pinksters son?”
“Yes”
“Is it true about the collection of canes behind the radiator in his office…?”
“Yes”

😆
He never had such a thing and would be horrified at the thought of caning some obnoxious scrote but loved the reputation. Worked wonders with some of the more unruly pupils.

I remember my brother got his ar5e spanked by the headmaster. On his very first day in primary school. He’ll never be able to deny that one 😉

Couple of “friends” got cane (might have been belt) in secondary school. I think the most embarrassing bit was the wait outside before hand, and the deputy head was in no hurry, and made sure the thwack could be heard outside the door too.

Other school was mostly excessive use of detentions. One kid… Lee was his name… clocked up so many lunchtime detentions that they had to come to an agreement that he’d do a detty every Tuesday and Thursday lunchtime for the whole of his 3rd and 4th year. And was therefore effectively immune from getting any more minor detentions for misbehaviour!

This thread explains why there are so many angry, argumentative types on here

So you think younger folk who never received corporal punishment don’t argue?? Hmm…

don’t recall getting the strap (Scotland) / tawse / Lochgelly in primary school, a few times at secondary school, fighting and being disruptive I think were the charge sheets – guilty as charged.

Left secondary school in 1980, so all this would be during the 70s.

As above, a pecking order of teachers who wielded the belt more than others, often in inverse proportion to the quality (?) of the punishment. Some were ineffective. some never actually wielded it that I know of or only in extremis, but you’d have to be mad/stupid/wilful to bring the punishment on yourself.

And the Latin teacher with the chalk duster, deadly – like throwing an Amercian football, luckily you learnt to duck and the poor sod behind would cop it instead.. 🙂

Just after I left school 27 of my former classmates got caught dealing drugs. My guess is that they were all caned.

I got detention so often that when I left school I knicked my detention chair, still in my room after forty years

Plenty of board rubbers thrown at me which had no effect on my behaviour.
Got the pump a couple of times, again, didn’t change anything. I became more rebellious and idiotic.

Then I got the cane, that sorted me out. That bugger hurt and left marks. When mentioning this to younger people they ask me if I told my dad (so he could kick the teachers head in or sue the school or something). Errm, no, I don’t fancy getting punished again thanks.

I doubt it works for everyone though and I wouldn’t suggest bringing corporal punishment back.

Dunlop Green flash to the backside. Reason: Kicking water in the footbath before a swimming lesson.

Football drop kicked to the arse from 6ft. Reason: Kicking a football after (by 1 sec) the PE teacher had blown his whistle for the end of lesson.

Both instances were with different teachers.

Both teachers:
Had a history of losing it randomly with pupils.
Enjoyed humiliating pupils that had forgotten their PE kit or towel and the geeky kids that weren’t very sporty.
Would be classed as psychopaths today.

Christ knows what the legacy of these nutters is on those kids that were humiliated.

Luckily there were other PE teachers who were very good, helping me excel at sport in school.

I was supposed to have the ruler (yard long wooden rule) in front of my class, I bent over, the teacher took a run up and then I side stepped, the teacher missed and then fell over!

For this I was caned on the stage in front of the whole school during assembly, tbh it didn’t hurt much and was worth it for the memory of the teacher falling over 😀

I was caned on the stage in front of the whole school during assembly, tbh it didn’t hurt much

Sounds like ritual humiliation!

Cane and slipper (rubber sole from a plimsole).
Slipper was more painful , longer lasting. Cane was cool as punishments were administered at assemble (Tenko style) and you could smirk through the canning.
Late 70’s

Primary School, Caned in HM’s office, Hit with a table tennis bat, slippered on the stage at assembly, Ruler across knuckles.

Secondary
Caned, slapped and hit with a bible (!).

70/80’s.

Officially the cane was an option but never remember anyone getting it – it was just there, hung on the wall. Smacked arse with hand or PE pump were more regular. Unofficially anything went – board rubber, flat head, strangulation – the usual 70’s/80’s stuff.

yep– cane (twice)-had a sadistic form teacher who used to hit us on the head with the wooden blackboard rubber–other objects included a metal ruler across the back of the hand–that was a woman teacher

Schooled in South Africa – so I got the cane PLENTY. We used to pull a single thread out of our ties every time we got lashed – and I held the record for the first term of high school. Mostly the art teacher who hated me (about as much as I hated art) and I sometimes got lashed twice a lesson by him – once at the beginning for not having done any work, and once at the end for the same reason.

TBH I don’t have an issue with caning as a punishment for suitable situations – though I guess you could say it didn’t work on me, or at least it took me a very long time to learn my lesson! That said as I got older I did settle down and buckle down and finished up near the top of the school academically – so maybe it did work in the end.

This thread explains why there are so many angry, argumentative types on here

Funny, I don’t encounter those here. Argumentative types, sure, and thank god, debate is always healthy. But angry?

Once, in the first year of primary school (so would have been 1978) for going over the fence into the nursery school next door to retrieve the ball that had gone over. All four of us who went got the cane (a drumstick actually) across the palm the as despite having asked for and obtained permission to go and fetch said ball, only one of us should actually have gone for it.

never fetched a ball again

Yes got the belt a few times. Separating your hands as the belt is whizing downwards causing the sadistic bast@rd to miss my hands and hit his shins didn’t go down well. 8)

I was shocked the other day when a 15 year old kid told my missus to **** off because she called him disgusting for spitting.

Not in anyway unusual I’m afraid.

I got the cane three times I think, all for fighting. I didn’t start fights but it seemed that if you won you got the cane.

Our history teacher had a reputation for throwing chalk at anyone talking during his lessons. He had an uncannily accurate throw. Never aimed at me though.

I saw one of the PE teachers administer a few harsh kicks to the arse of some pupil who’d been fooling around with a javelin, pointing it at others. The same PE teacher used to clip obnoxious kids round the ear sometimes.

Other than that, the cane had gone by the time I was in secondary school.

Had it for smoking, struck a deal with the Head for six of the best and a couple of weeks work report in exchange for him not telling my folks.

Next time I got caught he told them the lot, bastard!

I held the record for the amount of slipperings in my first year of secondary school, 57 times if I remember rightly, and was runner up for all time canings and would have won but it was banned in my final year of school.

It was a competition right?

I was just constantly in trouble, generally being bullied by fellow pupils and staff alike. Trouble was I used to it as I’d had far worse at home so didn’t give a shot.

Not just school. Where I come from it’s pretty normal for parents to use the cane on their children from a pretty young age.

I got it at home, and it set me up nicely for my first day at school. My mate from Nursery was trying to assert his dominance on the playground. I wasn’t having any of it and smashed his head with my yellow drink bottle. I still remember him looking dumbfounded as Tang sloshed all over his head. Next thing I know, I’m outside the headies office and he gives me six of the best. Pretty much a weekly occurrence in lower school from then on. Headie was a right sadist.

Middle school was much of the same. Another headie who was a sadist. I remember being late for school once and getting caned for it. Seems hilarious that I got the cane because the traffic was rubbish along with 20 other lads on the same bus.

Got to upper school and I remember asking my mate Mohammed Ali (for that was his name) for some food before religious assembly. He always brought in a great lunch. Incensed, I stayed back with a couple of mates, ate his food and hung his bag from the flagpole in the middle of the quadrangle as punishment. Mo rats us out to the upper school headie for eating his lunch, missing assembly and the bag hanging. The headie had a fearsome reputation with the cane, but not so fearsome a rep for his English meaning my first day in upper school was also the funniest. Headie calls us up, and he’s in such a rage that he screams at us to “turn the wall” instead of “turn to the wall”. My mate pipes up with “sir, it’s not turning!” and duly gets his bottom turned to ribbons. The two of us burst into laughter. He turns his rage on us. Must have taken about 20 “cuts” that day. Sadist chalked his canes so they’d land on the same spot each time.

Mo was a marked man after that day though. We made sure we ate his lunch every day from that day forth even if we weren’t hungry.

Two years from that day and we’re in our GCE year. School has a pretty bad Langur problem meaning there was a daily monkey invasion. They’d come in looking for food pretty much any time of the day. General pandemonium would occur if they entered your classroom meaning whichever teacher who was in there at the time would have to write his/her period off. The more enterprising amongst us took to leaving food on the windowsills (we’re on the 1st floor) during the periods we didn’t like. The monkeys turned up without fail until the day we got caught doing it during a particularly unpopular teacher’s period. Teacher makes the entire class (30+ lads) march up to headies office and line up. Headie duly caned each and every one of us. He also taught us and was a brilliant teacher, though prone to fits of rage. He had a quiet word with us afterwards asking us not to play up. Funny how that worked better than the previous teacher’s threats of violence.

I think I got caned pretty much every week for 11 years at school, bar a couple of years where I was a prefect. I still remember some hilarious moments. Like one headie trying to hit a lad who was over a foot taller than him. It was like watching Woody Harrelson in White Men Can’t Jump, except with an apoplectic headie.

I don’t think it did me any harm, though I’d certainly never cane my kids or let another adult have that control over them. Some of the teachers came to school looking to whale on the kids for whatever was wrong in their lives and that was wrong. Also, some kids lived in mortal fear of the cane. You tell them in the morning they’re going to get the cane in the evening and they’d pretty much be sobbing all day and doing anything they could, like ratting mates out, or blaming everyone else but themselves for why they got the cane. Most of us just shut up and took it. For the tougher nuts amongst us getting the cane was like walking to the tuck shop.

Taken me right down memory lane that has. Not sure why the OP wanted to know about the cane, but I had a lot of laughs remembering the above things!

The Tawse or Tweeger as it was known up North, a few of us had a competition in Secondary school for who could get the most in a term. History teacher, Stretchy, was shit at givin it, however the old PE teacher was hideous with the rest pretty moderate. The look of utter terror or faces when they got sent to the old PE teacher was priceless, as was the tear stained puffy eyes of certain school hard men on there return.

Taken me right down memory lane that has. Not sure why the OP wanted to know about the cane, but I had a lot of laughs remembering the above things!

It was just something I was talking about with the wife after the Educating Yorkshire prog. Kid sees the head 37 times in a term, for bullying, falsely accusing other kids of racism etc etc. If that first visit had had the threat of the cane, how many other visits would he have made.
Clearly: “never did us any harm”…

Didn’t realise it would be so interesting! I reckon I’ve read every post.

Plenty of times , it was painful and scary , you had to knock on the headmasters door and wait to see which light came on green for come in , amber for wait outside and red for go away and come back later . I remember somebody being so scared that they threw up while waiting outside the HMs door . I had the distinction of once being caned for blasphemy when I said to the biology teacher that a rat cut open and nailed to a piece of wood looked like Jesus . I thought that was a bit harsh but an another occasion I stayed off school for 2 weeks and when caught I gave some bullshit story about playing Ouija and it said I was going to die at school and just got sat down and talked to about the dangers of that sort of thing so that kind of balanced it up really .

4 weeks of lunch time and after school detentions for using a firework as a grenade in a school band rehearsal.

2 weeks for discovering the school networks master password ‘frodo’ purely by accident. I passed it on to the rest of the school causing chaos.

2 weeks for breaking a bullies arm.

1 week for replacing the german teachers office sign with a carved wooden sign from woodwork that read ‘Arbeit macht frei’.

1 week of suspension because the queen was visiting.

1 week for alcohol and pornography being found in our dorm room on a trip.

History teacher

Jeez they’re the worst.

Mine gave me an after school detention for bad handwriting FFS. I’d spacked my wrist in PE and couldn’t even hold a pen or pencil, and he was aware that I had to write left handed for 2 weeks.

But did find enough strength that day to rip up the detty form and tell him to shove it where the sun don’t shine. Fortunately our school had stopped using the cane about then too.

I was “advised” not to choose History on my O-level options. I called that a Result!

Yes on several occasions. Much better than an hours detention. In an all boys school with a rough catchment area it would have been madness not to have it. When it was stopped school became much scarier.