Results of mass caning

A TV report (March 2006) from a girls' boarding school in Busan included this brief glimpse of the after-effects of a mass punishment there. Several students partially lift up or lower their skirts to show the bruises on their backsides. These were almost certainly caused by a thick stick or club rather than anything that could be described as a cane in the British sense. It is a very distinctive feature of Korean culture that girls apparently receive corporal punishment just as often as boys.
Outdoor mass punishment

Students at an unknown outdoor location in South Korea are being disciplined with a short stick. It is not clear whether these are boys or girls or mixed. They all wear identical tracksuits. They have been asked to adopt the "all fours" position to receive the punishment on their backsides.
Korean school rulering

Picture from a Korean news page
(July 2008) reporting on a private high school in Gyeonggi Province. As far as I can make out, pupils are being spanked with a ruler on their bottoms for arriving late in the morning. The student at right is being dealt with while the boy on the left waits his turn, perhaps emptying his back pocket in readiness.
Mass punishment in the street

These students have been made to assume the "all fours" position outside their school. This is the normal posture for receiving a caning in South Korean schools, but being required to hold the position for several minutes can also be a punishment in its own right, without CP, and that may be what is happening here. Cf. the mass outdoor caning of students seen in this video clip.
Result of caning on thighs

Two Korean schoolboys show the results of being caned on the back of their thighs. This is actually against the official rules in South Korea, which lay down that boys are to be caned across the buttocks; only girls are supposed to receive the punishment on the thighs. In practice, it is evident that this rule gets broken in both directions. My own personal view is that caning the thighs or legs is a stupid idea: it can do damage, because the muscles are close to the surface, whereas there is no danger in caning the posterior, the obvious padded target area provided by nature.
Classroom punishment in Korea

This sort of classroom punishment is quite common in present-day South Korea. Whether this particular example is "the real thing" or just some students play-acting, I am not sure.
South Korean schoolboys punished for smoking

Apparently from the present day. Korean culture seems to go in for public humiliation as punishment, something which has largely gone out of fashion in the West. These schoolboys have been made to stuff their cigarette packets in their mouths and kneel in front of their teacher, who is holding a stick. Is she about to cane them with it? From what we hear about Korea it seems quite plausible, but we shall probably never know.
Birch at Westminster School

This birch sticking out of a drawer is said to be at Westminster School in London. A reader who attended there in the 1950s now kindly informs me that this table was still in situ then, but the birches had been removed a few years earlier. By his time, only the cane was used. See also this Oct 1801 news item.
The Eton birching block, with birches

Picture taken at the Eton College museum. The block lived in the Library, to which miscreants were summoned for a birching by the Head Master. The boy knelt on the step of the block, took his trousers down and reached over to the other side, with two "helpers" to hold up his shirt-tails, who could also hold the boy down if it proved necessary. I believe some observers claim that this block is a replica, and not the real thing, believed lost. Birching at Eton ended in about 1964.
Punishment book

This is a page from the punishment book of a school in Staffordshire, c.1920s. "Robbing graves - 6 strokes" is certainly an unusual entry!
Caned backsides

These are claimed to have been the results of prefect's punishments at King's School, Canterbury, in 1942. Did schoolboys really go around taking pictures of each others' buttocks in 1942? It seems a little unlikely. But they certainly are somebody's genuine caned bottoms, and show the "tramlines" left temporarily by a moderate school caning. It also illustrates the efficacity of the swishy rattan cane even through two layers of clothing, which is generally thought to be why it became the school punishment instrument of choice in Victorian England.
"Well well Tomo getting whacked again"

Picture taken in a classroom at a boys' secondary school in South London, c.1970, and submitted to F.R. by the "culprit" himself, though he evidently has no recollection of the incident, and says he cannot even remember who the teacher is. While there was no lack of real CP at the school in question at the time, this particular event looks to me more jocular than serious. Firstly, if this was a real punishment the teacher would need to fold the boy's blazer back above his backside and get the boy to bend a bit tighter. Secondly, the teacher is wielding only a thin 12-inch ruler, which would not have much effect on a trousered bottom. Indeed, it would probably break on impact if you attempted to apply it with any vigour through the arm's-length arc shown. Thirdly, if a real whacking were under way, all eyes would be riveted to the action, but the only other boy in the picture is watching the cameraman! One reader suggests the photo was taken secretly, but I think the picture quality is too good for a hidden camera in that era. On balance I think it is most likely an end-of-term jape that the teacher was in on.
Emerging from a whacking

Old cartoon shows crying boy holding his behind as he emerges from a room where he has evidently just been spanked.
"The Line's Busy"

A cartoon showing what appears to be a multiple domestic whipping, source and date unknown.
Over-the-knee spanking

Double photograph meant for use in a stereoscopic viewer to give a 3-D effect. It is captioned "He protests vigorously" and dated 1902.
Domestic spanking

New larger version of this picture agency photo of a son's over-the-knee spanking. The agency caption is "Father punishing a child" and the date is estimated at 1915 to 1930. Obviously posed for jocular purposes.
Boy Getting Spanked by Mother

Agency picture dated "circa 1896" - presumably in America, though that is not stated. The stick the mother is using looks too small to be very effective.
"A father uses the shingle on his son, c.1897"

A US picture presumably posed for the purposes of the photograph. I first thought this an unusual technique, with the boy on all fours. However, several other pictures showing the recipient in this posture have now turned up (see next item). (It is also, by the way, the position that present-day students are often required to assume for school CP in South Korea.) The "shingle", which Webster defines as "a small thin piece of building material", appears to be for all practical purposes a paddle. The same picture has also appeared, with an 1897 copyright, as a stereoscopic double image for 3-D viewing, with the jokey title "Meeting of the board of education".
"A mother does the same, c.1897"

Companion piece to the previous item, but this one is an over-the-knee paddling.
Another all-fours paddling

The earlier "on all fours" item prompted a reader to send me this, just to show that such a position might not have been as unusual as I thought. The source and date are unknown, but from the look of it, I would say it predates colour photography, so the colour was probably added artificially. There also seems to be something a bit wrong with the perspective, but that might be because it was originally part of a stereoscopic double image for use in a 3-D viewer.
And another one

Another picture remarkably similar to the previous two. This one is captioned "A special meeting of the board of education" and dated 1902.
Over-the-knee spanking

A young boy is enthusiastically spanked by, presumably, his father. Possibly USA in the 1960s, to judge from the boy's clothes. This looks as if it could be a still from a film.
Small boy paddled

Date and provenance unknown. The boy looks happy, perhaps because he visibly has some protection stuffed down the back of his shorts. The implement appears to be a table-tennis bat.
"Yours with all my sole"

This postcard dates from 1906. A cartoon of a domestic slippering, with typical punning title. I do not know what the significance of the black cat is. It is not an advertisement for Black Cat cigarettes, because they did not exist in 1906.
Alaska paddle

Described as "a twelve-holed paddle used to spank school children", this undated item came from the webpage of a museum in Alaska that now seems to have gone.
Jocular school paddle

This maybe should have gone in my "CP in advertising" section, but in this case the paddle is itself the advertisement -- for the Chicago school furniture company named on it, who presumably distributed samples of this jokey "Board of education" free to schools. I am not sure whether it was of the right dimensions for serious CP use or whether it was just a sort of novelty toy item. My hunch would be the latter. The graphic design has a 1960s look about it.
"The Board of Education"

An over-the-knee paddling, source and date unknown.
"Father Fozenlogen's Board of Education"

Said to be from a Catholic school - evidently in the chemistry lab. The holes are to reduce air resistance during the paddle's swing. Allegedly, "students that had a meeting with the 'board of education' three times in a semester got to sign the paddle", and indeed a number of signatures can be glimpsed if you look closely.
Scene from a play

Scene captioned "Master Crane dealing with the tardy Mr. Hans" from a play called Icabod at the Brewster Theater Company
in New York State. I infer from the costumes that the play is set in the 19th century, before the paddle superseded the cane in American schools.
American school paddle

This American paddle is said to be from a school in Washington State around 1930. It is a rather unusual shape, crafted from a light springy wood, about 18 inches long and just under 4 inches wide at the broadest point, says the reader who possesses it. Some of its recipients have signed it - intriguingly, at least as many girls as boys. The names that can be deciphered include Kit Williams, Martha Bodine, Roy Satchwell, Bud Frolin, Esther Schumacher and Elden Cutler.
1940s school paddle

Another school paddle on which the recipients have written their names. It comes from Mount Pleasant School in North Carolina, and dates from the 1940s or 1950s. What is interesting about this paddle, when you look at the picture of two chaps holding it up, is how small it is -- surely too small to have much effect. Several instances of the surname "Eller" can be seen, and the picture comes from a page that was on an Eller family website.
A classroom caning

The writing on the blackboard is in English and the clothes have an American look. They, and the sepia tones, perhaps suggest the early 20th century. Of course, it could be a clever reconstruction, possibly for a film.
A US schoolroom punishment

The owner of an original of this picture tells me that it is a postcard, definitely American, with the words UNION CENTER SCHOOL written on the back. (Unfortunately there are dozens of schools with this name in different US States.) He dates it from 1907 to 1915. The presence of three adults and two spectating students on the stage seems to indicate that this is not an ordinary classroom scene but rather an assembly of some sort. The implement being used looks like a stick, and too small to have much effect. The facial expressions don't convey any sense of a very sombre or serious occasion -- maybe this is a "birthday spanking"? My correspondent agrees that this is a likely explanation, but anyway he is sure the picture was taken in a real school and not on a film set.
"Walk softly and carry a big stick"

This is from Concord High School in Arkansas. Neither the school district's CP policy nor the school's student handbook was on line when I last looked, so whether the school really uses this paddle we do not know; obviously the picture is posed as a joke.
A school paddling in Texas, 1977

This picture (larger size not available) is said to be from the 1977 Year Book of Calallen High School, Corpus Christi, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s it was not unknown for photographs of apparent paddlings to appear in US school yearbooks. However, all the others I have seen were clearly posed for more or less jocular purposes. This one seems quite different and has a definite look of being "the real thing", perhaps furtively snatched sur le vif by a student who happened to be passing with a camera for some other purpose. Hence, among other things, the murky quality of the image. If I am right about this, we have here an extremely rare, possibly even unique, document of enormous historical value. Note the staff member acting as witness, who I think has possibly just spotted the intruder with the camera and is not quite sure what to do about it. The half-leaning, half-bending, hands-on-the-wall posture of the boy being punished ties in exactly with myriad anecdotal accounts of modern-day southern US school paddling. Doing it in the corridor seems to have been typical of the era, whereas nowadays these things, where they happen at all, are more often confined to the privacy of an office. The boy, in his very 1970s flares, looks as if he has just been given the traditional instruction to put his feet apart and stick his rear end out a bit -- or maybe he was a "regular customer" and didn't need to be told. It would be interesting to know what "discussions" took place later with the photographer, and how comfortable the school authorities were with the idea of including the picture in the yearbook.
A school paddling out of doors

This is allegedly from a Kansas (USA) school in 1915, but I have no way of checking that. Note students peeking round the corner of the schoolhouse, giggling nervously. The scene was clearly posed for the photographer. Teacher is looking straight at the camera, holding the paddle still in the air. I don't think the boy is seriously being punished, though he is putting on quite a good wriggling act.
"Student takeover day 1971"

The Class of 1971 from Lafayette High School, Lexington, Kentucky. On "student takeover day", this is Kenny Gullette getting a paddling from Luanne Azevedo.
And here is a front view of Kenny round about the same time, with an unidentified friend: 
"Teacher Spanking Boy in Classroom"

Picture in the Corbis collection dated 1906. Presumably from the USA. I think it was clearly posed for jocular effect.
Spanking tunnel

Probably from an American college or sporting team of some kind, this is an illustration of a spanking tunnel, sometimes confusingly called a "spanking machine". The person to be punished crawls along the "tunnel" made by the legs of the other members, and is spanked by each of them as he or she passes through.
Hunting camp spanking

A stereoview card that was for sale on eBay. The seller titled it "Camp discipline? What kind of deal is this?". The man being paddled looks as if he could be much younger than the others, though it's hard to be sure. Presumably the picture is American, from the late 19th century (it has an "early days of photography" look about it) -- a reader suggests 1890s. Another reader, who claims personal experience of US hunting camps, suggests this sort of thing was not uncommon in the 1920s and not entirely unknown even more recently, though this picture is clearly much earlier. His view is that the event is probably not as jocular as it may appear and that the punishment could be a real (though obviously informal) one, but on the other hand it could be some sort of initiation ceremony. Either way, I haven't yet found any other corroboration of this tradition.
A "corps of cadets" paddling in Texas

A boy forces a resigned grin as he obeys orders to "assume the position" for a bruising posterial encounter with what I assume is a baseball bat. Someone has written "Texas A&M 1982" on the photocopy. There is a sizeable and clearly highly appreciative audience, which evidently is not confined to members of the college fraternity but seems to include casual passers-by and even their young children. Notice the young spectator at far left clutching his own backside, as though in sympathy, or maybe he's just had it, or perhaps he's next (cf. boys in Japan unconsciously holding their bottoms as they queue up for a caning).
UPDATE: I am now informed that this is not a fraternity event, as I had supposed, but the annual "Aggie Bonfire" ritual, and the young man bending over is a junior "Yell Leader" in his third year, receiving punishment from a 4th-year senior. The instrument is said to be an axe handle, and this is referred to as "the traditional method of discipline at the university until the mid-1980s".
Freshman paddle, The Citadel

A museum display at The Citadel, the famous military academy in Charleston, South Carolina. The caption says "Freshmen were called Rats. The 'Palmetto Paddle' was used by the upperclassmen on the Rats to make them conform to The Citadel ways". It does not say when this went out of use.