THE WORLD (these external links will open in a new window)
Discipline and the Law
The second item on this page on the anti-CP Center for Effective Discipline website is a list of all countries that have legally banned school corporal punishment. However, some of this applies only in theory: we know, for instance, that CP continues in some schools in China, Iraq, Kenya, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand, whatever the law might say.
False Promises [PDF]
From the World Family Policy Forum 2001, this essay on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child explains that the convention itself is largely fine; the problem is the way it is being interpreted by the wholly unelected and unaccountable UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
For instance, this committee has taken it upon itself to decide that all forms of corporal punishment, however reasonable and moderate, and even if given by the child's own parents, contravene the Convention's rule against "physical and mental violence".
And yet the Convention itself nowhere mentions corporal punishment, and it is plain that such an interpretation was not in the minds of its drafters, and is not what the signatory nations thought they were signing up to.
Oldest spanked or given school detention [HISTORY]
Discussion on a message board about school students given CP at an unusually high age. According to this, the record in real life -- as opposed to actors in films -- seems to be held by two 21-year-olds in Australia, caned in 1981 (and on their hands, too, which is always a foolish policy in my personal view, but seems particularly ridiculous at that age).
However, we shouldn't forget the true story of an undercover drug cop who got paddled at a Dallas high school in 1989. He spent four months at the school posing as a student, and had to take the paddling so as not to blow his cover; but he was actually aged 25!
Unruly Classrooms
Half-baked document (Jan 2000) from Unesco about the worldwide collapse in school behaviour. It quotes, with apparent approval, a teacher who says "We've switched suddenly from a system based on prohibitions and punishment to one based on sharing where the most important thing is agreement between everyone involved in the education system and we've not yet learned how to put that new system into practice" -- which is one way of putting it, I suppose. Background interest only -- there is nothing specifically about corporal punishment proper.
However, there is a photo of "14 boys being punished in a corridor" in a school in Illinois, USA. The boys have been made to kneel in a row with their heads to the floor and their backsides in the air. How is this -- which, it seems, is OK with Unesco -- any less degrading (etc. etc.) than privately paddling them, which is not allowed in Illinois?
Version française du document ("Zéro de conduite").
Versión española del documento ("Cero en conducta").
A Study of Attitudes Towards Corporal Punishment as an Educational Procedure From the Earliest Times to the Present [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
This is an enormous document, really an online book. It was written as a university thesis in 1971 but has only relatively recently seen the light of day. One advantage of this is that it does not suffer from the distorting politically-correct perspective of everything published today. The author, Robert McCole Wilson, has written a new Afterword for the 1999 online edition.
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
A lobby group to support efforts by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to nag all the countries in the world into abolishing CP. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child nowhere mentions corporal punishment; the Committee's decision to construe the language of the Convention as banning CP has, as far as I am aware, not been tested in any court of law, still less put to a vote by any democratic body. There is in any case no legal machinery to enforce the Convention. It is not a binding treaty like the European Human Rights Convention, with its own proper court to decide on specific cases which is made up of actual judges from the signatory states (whatever you may think of their decisions). I suspect GITEACPOC hopes that people will just assume that it is that kind of body. In reality, these busybodies who don't represent anyone except themselves can only keep on nagging. Nobody need pay any attention.
Should corporal punishment be banned?
A BBC News Online "Talking Point" forum from September 1999, in the wake of the Human Rights Watch report on Kenya.
Talking Point: Child Discipline
Links to several "conversations" about CP in spring 2001 on yet another BBC website. There is a cartoon of an over-the-knee spanking in progress.
Human Rights: The Caning Backlash
Article (1997) from Hinduism Today about school corporal punishment in various countries, including Malaysia and the UK.
ARGENTINA (these external links will open in a new window)
St. Alban's College, Buenos Aires (Alternative link)
[HISTORY]
A 1954 leaver writes that this school was largely ruled by fear. As well as the cane there was something called a "paleta bat". Prefects were allowed to give CP.
AUSTRALIA (these external links will open in a new window)
Lee Street School: Chapter 3 -- Slates and Cane [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
The story of a school in Melbourne. In 1875 the chief disciplinary method was the cane, "meted out to the hind quarters", but by 1907 a strap was also in use. The headmaster from 1939 to 1950 was also noted for "six of the best".
Goodbye The Cane [HISTORY]
Extremely long thread on a message board including (amidst a certain amount of nonsense) some evidently well-researched material about CP in schools in Victoria, particularly in the contributions by "Dean".
Guildford Grammar School, Western Australia [HISTORY]
A huge collection of detailed caning anecdotes taken from a book about this private boys' school, dating from 1912 to 1975.
Corporal punishment in the early 1900s [HISTORY]
The Wingham Museum includes a document setting out policy for CP in public schools in the early 1900s. The cane seems to have been the instrument of choice, and a few punishment book extracts are quoted.
The Blessed Birch [HISTORY]
Message board quotes a Sydney Morning Herald piece from 1983 about a row over a role-playing lesson on courts and human rights, in which a rolled-up newspaper is substituted for a birch. The ensuing long discussion broadens out to cover school CP more generally.
More School History (long!) [HISTORY]
Interesting extracts from the histories of various Australian private schools as regards corporal punishment.
The Strap [HISTORY]
Pictures of the strap at Kostka Hall, a prep school in Victoria, the first school mentioned in the extracts quoted in the previous item.
Have Children's Rights Gone Too Far?
Transcript of a silly TV discussion (May 2002) in which, as usual, there are far too many guests and far too little time for any of them to get their points across. Two of the speakers are Frank Dando, headmaster of the eponymous Sports Academy, one of the few schools in Australia still using CP, and an 11-year-old student at the school, who has been at the receiving end of Frank's whackings.
The Punishment Book 1920-21 [HISTORY]
A primary school in New South Wales shows an extract from its punishment book and quotes the rules for the use of CP.
Life on the goldfields: children (Alternative link)
[HISTORY]
Mentions CP at temporary state schools in the goldfields, including a humorous anecdote about mothers who whipped a teacher who had beaten a small boy.
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Canberra, 28 April 1997 [PDF]
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Brisbane, 1 May 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Sydney, 9 May 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Canberra, 16 June 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Perth, 3 July 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Adelaide, 4 July 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Melbourne, 9 July 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Sydney, 5 August 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Brisbane, 6 August 1997
Joint Standing Committee on Treaties: Canberra, 3 September 1997
Verbatim reports of hearings to investigate the effect on Australian legislation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and -- among many other things -- whether it could be held to outlaw corporal punishment, either at school or in the home. Unless you really want to plough all the way through these long documents, use the Acrobat search facility to look for references to 'corporal punishment'.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Executive Summary [PDF]
The above hearings culminated in this final report by the joint committee. It concludes that there should be no federal-level intervention in the matter of corporal punishment in schools. Nor does it support legislation banning parents from administering reasonable chastisement.
ACT Hansard May 1997 [HISTORY]
Debate in the state parliament of the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) on legislation to abolish school corporal punishment. The Minister stated that it had already fallen out of use in government schools (in 1987) and in the Anglican and Catholic schools, so the proposal was in his view unnecessary.
Open Letter of Protest ... Dover Heights Boys' High School [HISTORY]
Story of a 1970s fuss over caning in NSW.
More information and links for School CP in Australia: see Country files.
BAHAMAS (these external links will open in a new window)
S.C. McPherson Teacher is Discharged
Tragic story from January 2001 about a 12-year-old boy who died after being caned on the hand at school. The child had an undiagnosed heart disease and the teacher was acquitted of manslaughter.
More information and links for School CP in The Bahamas: see Country files.
BARBADOS (these external links will open in a new window)
Night That Brought Back Old Days [HISTORY]
Information about floggings at Harrison College 30 years ago.
More information and links for School CP in Barbados: see Country files.
BELIZE (these external links will open in a new window)
25 Years Ago on Ambergris Caye: Discipline [HISTORY]
Describes past school paddlings in this small Central American country (formerly British Honduras).
More information and links for School CP in Belize: see Country files.
BERMUDA (these external links will open in a new window)
The melting away of our traditional values [HISTORY]
Columnist in the Bermuda Sun laments (November 2002) the demise of the cane and strap in Bermuda's schools. Discipline is vanishing and behaviour has become unacceptable, he says.
More information and links for School CP in Bermuda: see Country files.
BHUTAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Discussing violence against children
Bhutan is a tiny country from which we rarely hear anything. I had to look it up in the atlas to remind myself where it is. This April 2005 article claims that school CP has been abolished, but teachers say that discipline has deteriorated as a result.
BOTSWANA (these external links will open in a new window)
Corporal punishment in schools under spotlight (Alternative link)
Local newspaper article (June 2003). As too often in Africa, some of the cases quoted here go way beyond anything that could be described as reasonable corporal punishment.
More information and links for School CP in Botswana: see Country files.
CANADA (these external links will open in a new window)
Old Boys: The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Extracts from a book of reminiscences about this elite private school in Toronto. From the 1920s up to 1972, a lot of boys got caned. Says one old boy: "I used to charge people a quarter to see the marks on my ass ... The prefects were allowed to give a maximum of six whacks, the masters eight ... we used to order our canes especially from England".
The Myths of Upper Canada College [HISTORY]
Unfavourable review of the above book by another Old Boy of the school (who says he was not caned even once). According to this, the book gives a false impression by virtue of those chosen to contribute and the editing of their remarks. It is interesting to discover that the author actually interviewed 300 old boys but only used the testimony of 71 of them.
Pranks (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Teachers (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Snippets of Stuff and Half Forgotten Memories (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Don Ferguson's Feller Memories (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Here is a sample of message I have received from Feller ex-students (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
The strap (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Bruce Pettinger's memories of Feller (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
1960s recollections of Feller College, a co-educational, bilingual boarding school near Montreal until its closure in 1967. Girls and boys alike got the strap ("getting biffed") on their hands; one contributor says he "probably averaged a strapping once a week". But also, boys were "liberally" caned on their bare bottoms in the office of one particular housemaster. Another had a paddle, which left one recipient's backside "red, warm and smarting for the rest of that day and into the next one". And this was nothing to do with any British cultural heritage, or with Québecois Catholicism: the school was founded and run by French-speaking Swiss Protestants.
Renaissance Man has Gift for Swash 'n' Buckle [HISTORY]
Artist and film actor Duncan "Zorro" Regehr (b. 1952), who grew up in British Columbia, says he got caned across the backside for painting a nude picture of a girl in his class.
Forms of Punishment in the Canadian Public School System [HISTORY]
Article from mid-2002, when CP was still available in some schools in Alberta and one or two other places, but it refers to it entirely in the past tense. Also surprising is that the author says it included whacking on backsides with a paddle as well as on hands with a strap. It was not common, he says, since the threat of being strapped or paddled was usually enough to keep students in line.
Happiness and a Hickory Stick [HISTORY]
Article from Time Magazine in November 1947 about Shawnigan Lake School in British Columbia, a private boys' boarding school run on strict lines with "iron discipline" by its English headmaster, who is pictured in his office with a student. It was in this office that boys guilty of "serious offenses" were caned, the text tells us. On another page that now seems to have disappeared, a former student wrote that the photo "was obviously posed as if it had been true to life the ... boy would have been bending over [the] big chair with his coat tails up".
This Hurts Me More Than You [HISTORY]
The writer of a "token man" column in The Woman's Quarterly thinks that something important was lost when the strap went out of fashion.
1898: A moment in time: Rules and Punishment [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
Part of a site for kids showing what it was like at school in British Columbia 100 years ago. This (presumably posed) picture shows a child being strapped on the hand.
The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens [HISTORY]
Academic paper in fashionable sociological jargon, produced at the taxpayer's expense, which seems to take it as read that CP is abuse. "...physical abuse and corporal punishment can be interpreted as 'deserved' and internalized in a negative self-concept that supports self-blame"... blah blah blah ....
Version française du document (Le garçon invisible : Nouveau regard sur la victimologie au masculin: enfants et adolescents).
Why Bring Back the Belt? [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
A school student in Saskatchewan says she would refuse to go to school if there were corporal punishment.
Kensington Schools 1794-1955 [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
In Kensington, Prince Edward Island, the first proper school was built in 1847. Here is a photograph of the punishment straps used (when you get to the page, click on the small image to show an enlargement).
Section 43 - Inquiry - Debate continued [HISTORY]
Senate debate of November 1996 on (mainly school but also parental) corporal punishment.
Felix & Formanger [HISTORY]
In the early part of the 20th century, corporal punishment was used by English-speaking teachers on students who spoke their native French on the Newfoundland coast.
Saskatchewan poll results released [HISTORY]
52 per cent of those interviewed in this province in April 1997 thought teachers should be allowed to use corporal punishment.
Would You Let Your Principal Hit You With a Two-Foot Long Piece Of Leather? [HISTORY]
A student newspaper at an unidentified school (undated, but seems to be from 2001) is indignant that this was at the time still possible in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
More information and links for School CP in Canada: see Country files.
CAYMAN ISLANDS (these external links will open in a new window)
Discipline begins in the home
Editorial (Dec 2005) in the Caymanian Compass complains that, with CP no longer fashionable in schools, "educators are forced to suspend students who, more often than not, spend their time out of school in front of a television or computer or turn to crime".
CHINA incl. Tibet (these external links will open in a new window)
Government of Tibet in Exile
Account of discrimination against Tibetans by the occupying Chinese. Teachers beat the Tibetan students even though corporal punishment is supposed to be illegal in China.
Beatings are nothing new
Letter in the Taipei Times (January 2000) alleges that the corporal punishment of Tibetan student monks has always been common and predates the Chinese invasion.
More information and links for CP in China: see Country files.
DENMARK (these external links will open in a new window)
The little prince [HISTORY]
Article about Hans Christian Andersen (b. 1805) states that his mother managed to persuade his school that he was not to be birched, as though he were a member of royalty.
EGYPT (these external links will open in a new window)
Issues concerning Egypt's initial report
Human rights report claiming that CP is "the norm" in Egyptian schools, although the law prohibits it.
Mr. Beard [HISTORY]
6 of the best
Nostalgia
Mr Beard
Reminiscences of bare-bottom canings on a message board for alumni of the English School, Cairo, in the 1950s.
Victoria College 1902-1956: Educating the Elite [HISTORY]
History of a British-style boarding school in Alexandria. Caning (no details given) was "de rigueur".
EUROPE (Mediaeval) (these external links will open in a new window)
Medieval Technology and Everyday Life [HISTORY]
Shows a drawing from about 1445 of a schoolboy being punished in class.
FIJI (these external links will open in a new window)
Address at the opening of the computer laboratory [HISTORY]
The Prime Minister, addressing his old school in 2001, recalls getting "a very sore backside" after receiving the qanuya, a supple reed cane.
More information and links for school CP in Fiji: see Country files.
FRANCE (these external links will open in a new window)
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Excerpt from the biography of Jacques Pépin, a French chef born in 1935. He writes that at Lycée St Louis, a Jesuit boarding school in Bourg-en-Bresse, "corporal punishment was swift, certain and harsh" and consisted of being smacked hard across the face. (There is a very similar school scene in the 1960 François Truffaut movie Les Quatre Cents Coups.)
Of course, CP is supposed to have been illegal in French schools since the 19th century. Perhaps this is what happens when you ban it -- it still takes place, but is carried out in an unregulated, dangerous and inappropriate manner.
GHANA (these external links will open in a new window)
Sensing danger, headmaster gets tough on indiscipline (10 February 2004) (Alternative link)
Discipline on its highest pedestal (2 April 2005) (Alternative link)
Students caned on campus (22 June 2005)
Robo is remorseful (15 July 2005) (Alternative link)
Rising and falling (July 2005) (Alternative link)
Masters regret caning incident (5 September 2005) (Alternative link)
These are all pages from the remarkably outspoken students' online newspaper at Prempeh College, a huge boarding school for boys in Kumasi, with numerous references to canings. On 1 April 2005, over 500 students were given six strokes each for not attending roll-call. According to the June 2005 item, CP was previously abolished but then restored; the cane is applied to the offender's back, evidently meaning here the upper back. Students suggest that, if there has to be CP at all, it should be inflicted elsewhere.
The Man who Spanked 6th Formers (Alternative link)
More from Prempeh College (see previous items). This is a story from the 1980s.
More information and links for School CP in Ghana: see Country files.
GUYANA (these external links will open in a new window)
Whipping at school made me a more serious student
Corporal punishment was never an effective method of discipline for me as a teacher
The absence of corporal punishment in American schools has led to chaos
We need to exercise old-fashioned common sense
Violence in American schools cannot be attributed to the lack of corporal punishment
I only ordered corporal punishment once but the threat of the ferula was good for discipline
Spare the rod
Corporal punishment may have contributed to our violent society
Voluminous and heated correspondence (Jan-Mar 2004) in the Georgetown Stabroek News.
Committee on Rights of Child reviews initial report of Guyana
A government spokesperson maintains in this UN report that CP is used in schools only "in extreme cases" and "under controlled circumstances in accordance with the Education Act".
HAITI (these external links will open in a new window)
Project Teach - Seminar Program (Alternative link)
Mentions that corporal punishment is common in Haitian schools, but gives no details.
HONG KONG (these external links will open in a new window)
Hong Kong Legislative Council 16 January 1991 [HISTORY] [PDF]
Conflicting views by local politicians on the abolition of school CP, which went ahead shortly after this. See pages 34, 35, 64, 77, 83 and 105.
Hong Kong Legislative Council 23 December 1981 [HISTORY] [PDF]
In the same forum ten years earlier, questions were raised about alleged excesses. It was clarified that only boys might be caned.
La Salle Primary School Old Boys [HISTORY]
At this boys' primary school in Hong Kong, "spanking by cane" by the headmaster was the norm up to the 1970s.
HUNGARY (these external links will open in a new window)
Between Two Homelands [DOC] [HISTORY]
The writer of this autobiographical diary says that at secondary school in Budapest around 1940 the most common punishment was a caning on the buttocks.
INDIA (these external links will open in a new window)
Br Eric D'souza was our To Sir with Love
Bollywood actor/producer Shahrukh Khan recalls being caned "every week" at St Columba's, a Catholic school in Delhi, around 1980.
Spare the rod?
A senior citizen explains how corporal punishment played a vital role in his getting his school-leaving certificate.
Corporal Punishment in Chennai schools - A study (Alternative link) [PDF]
More a rambling collection of poorly-written notes than a proper study, this is published by a local "human rights" body and is accordingly firmly biased against CP.
My School Punishment
An Indian message board for kids, with many hundreds of entries. Numerous references to caning; some of them may be fantasy.
Bishop's School, Pune: Principals [HISTORY]
Discipline was strict and corporal punishment was common at this Anglican school in the 1930s and 1940s. Only the headmaster could use the cane. The lampshade in his office was torn, "testifying to the height to which he raised the cane", according to this student's memories.
Idol Chatter: Salman Khan [HISTORY]
Bollywood star Salman Khan says that if he hadn't been spanked and caned by his teachers he wouldn't be where he is today.
Classroom traumas
Article in The Hindu (July 2003) argues that corporal punishment is brutal and damaging, but doesn't really define its terms.
When teaching becomes coercive
A series of four articles in The Tribune of Chandigarh. All seem to equate corporal punishment with general brutality. Caning doesn't have to be like that, if the education system is properly run and supervised.
Can't we spare the rod?
Few Indian schools have yet banned corporal punishment, according to this December 2003 article in The Times of India. But apparently we are talking about teachers "kicking and punching" students and even of one case in which a student was beaten to death. There is major terminological confusion here. These things plainly should not be allowed, but they have nothing to do with corporal punishment as correctly defined and properly administered.
More information and links for School CP in India: see Country files.
INDONESIA (these external links will open in a new window)
Indonesian school linked to top terror suspects
Article from the Wall Street Journal (September 2003) about a fundamentalist Islamic school. Mentions that students who miss prayers get 10 strokes of the cane.
IRAQ (these external links will open in a new window)
A man ahead of his time [HISTORY]
About the chairman of a school board serving the Sephardic community of Baghdad in the 1920s, who made a rule against corporal punishment.
Back in school, Iraqis have a lot of unlearning to do
Article in USA Today (October 2003) mentions that there is still corporal punishment in Iraq's schools, but gives no details.
IRELAND (these external links will open in a new window)
The Geldof Story: Day 2 [HISTORY]
This biography of rock star Bob Geldof briefly mentions regular canings at Blackrock College in Dublin in the 1960s.
Kipperhead: Profile of a Christian Brother [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
Author Malachi O'Doherty recalls an education dominated by priests wielding straps and canes.
Monastic Ireland: Bangor [HISTORY]
At this monastery in ancient times (possibly the sixth century AD but the page isn't very explicit about that), CP was administered to the youngsters with a leather strap on the palm of the hand. This remained an Irish Catholic practice until very recently.
The Corporal Punishment Book [HISTORY]
Page from the punishment book of a primary school in Cork, dating from 1911. Recorded punishments were rare, and consisted of "slaps on the hand".
Original sin [HISTORY]
A theatre director recalls being hit every day at school.
National School Records [HISTORY]
Records in the National Archives include some examples of Corporal Punishment Books.
Dr Noel Browne [HISTORY]
Credits the legendary doctor-politician with having been instrumental in securing the abolition of school corporal punishment.
More information and links for School CP in Ireland: see Country files.
JAMAICA (these external links will open in a new window)
Kingston, Jamaica
An elderly gentleman recalls being whipped by the headmaster in front of the entire school in about 1950.
London teachers' Jamaican lessons (Alternative link)
BBC News item from March 2002. London teachers visit Jamaica to learn how to handle Afro-Caribbean boys, who do consistently badly in British schools. The article states that Caribbean schools use the cane, but illicitly. This is incorrect: CP in Jamaica has not been banned, and remains entirely lawful.
A nine-year-old who hates school
Depressing tale from 2001. Refers to "floggings" and "beatings" but it's not clear exactly what is meant. At all events, teachers in Jamaica sound as if they are not always applying CP correctly.
JAPAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Corporal punishment in the schools and homes of Japan
An academic paper. Gives the history of the law relating to corporal punishment in schools. It was banned in 1941, but there are still 1,000 cases of corporal punishment a year. (Actually, I suspect most of this is general brutality rather than what we would call proper CP.) Discusses why it is so difficult to get rid of it in practice. There are a couple of statistical charts.
JORDAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Muslim girls struggle for education
In a comment right at the bottom of this BBC page about schooling in the Arab world, a returned Peace Corps Volunteer says that boys in schools in Jordan face corporal punishment on a daily basis.
More information and links for School CP in Jordan: see Country files.
KAMPUCHEA (these external links will open in a new window)
Cambodia
See the bottom picture on the page. It shows a classroom, and one of the students is holding what definitely looks like a cane. The text (in Japanese) doesn't seem to be saying anything to clarify matters, as far as I can work out from a machine translation.
KENYA (these external links will open in a new window)
Kenya "SchoolSpeak" [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
This glossary of 1940s-1960s Kenyan school slang tells us that "cuts" meant "strokes with a bamboo cane on the backside". Not a usage confined to Kenya, of course. (And I doubt if the canes were actually bamboo, which is too rigid and brittle for punishment purposes; rattan is more likely.)
Declare my wealth? Not me [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
Writer claims that at his school the penalty for stealing a school book was 20 strokes of the cane on the backside.
Old Cambrian Society: Prince of Wales School, Nairobi [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
An expat Brit recalls this school in the 1940s. Prefects were authorised to cane miscreants. Their 'cuts' were thought much harder than those of the headmaster. One teacher used to ask the class how they thought one of their fellows should be punished. "Flog him, sir", they would shout. What larks!
A Headmaster Remembered [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
More about the Prince of Wales School (see previous item). This is a tribute to its headmaster from 1945 to 1959. "He was deadly accurate with the cane, and often one would see boys cooling their painful posteriors in the washbasins of the toilets just round the corner from his office."
Decolonizing the Mind [HISTORY]
"Three to five strokes of the cane on the bare buttocks" was the punishment for speaking the local tongue instead of English at a colonial school described here.
How Can You Have Any Pudding? [HISTORY]
Article (March 2000) from Harvard University's college newspaper about some of Harvard's current African students and the schools they attended in Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. All reminisce fondly about the corporal punishment they received there, and find American attitudes incomprehensible.
Spare the Child: Corporal Punishment in Kenyan Schools
A long report (1999) by Human Rights Watch. It claims that the official regulations are routinely ignored and that pupils are caned for trivial reasons. There is also a brief summary of the report.
US State Department Human Rights Practices Report 2000
Section 5 informs us that corporal punishment of students, including caning, is widespread in Kenyan schools.
LITHUANIA
See Country files.
MALAYSIA (these external links will open in a new window)
Shut Up! Or I give you Borang C!!!
Recollections of Chung Ling High School, Penang, in 1995. "Borang C" (Form C) is a printed form on which school discipline cases are entered. If the offence is serious enough, "you will definitely get your ass caned by Mr Ar Bak". The form itself is reproduced. The punishment options it lists under "Tindakan" (action taken) include warning, apology, detention, police, and "Cane 1", "Cane 2", "Cane 3" and "Cane more than 3" (referring to the number of strokes).
Should Public Caning Be Allowed In Schools? (Alternative link)
The writer of this piece was educated at St John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur, where "caning was neither spared nor frowned upon". He and his schoolmates have turned out successful and not psychologically handicapped, he says. In his view, psychologists and mollycoddling parents are doing a great disservice to pupils by their opposition to CP.
The Life of an ex-Senior Putera
Scroll down to "Reasons why this month sucked". A 17-year-old student at the Royal Military College tells us that he got a five-stroke caning from the DOS (Director of Studies) in his very last month there (Dec 2006). The cane must be wielded vigorously at this elite army boarding school, because immediately after being punished the student is sent by ambulance for a medical checkup. However, he says, "happy to say no long lasting damage to my buttocks".
The caning of an Ampang boy
A blogger's comments provoked by a news item on school CP.
The School of Hard Knocks (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
A former pupil of the huge Setapak High School recalls that every Friday was public caning day in the assembly area. This consisted of "getting one's ass whipped in front of a few thousand people". It hurt, and dozens of misbehaving students got it every week, he says.
The Frangipani Tree (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
V. Chakaravarthy, a student of Dr G.E.D. Lewis at the Victoria Institution (see following item) in the 1950s, later himself became a headmaster, running Setapak High School (see previous item) in the 1980s. Inspired by Dr Lewis's example, he writes that he got rid of thuggery at Setapak by "facing up to the culprits with firmness and liberal use of the cane".
Club 21 for merit [HISTORY]
Part of a website about the history of top Kuala Lumpur boys' school, the Victoria Institution. Club 21 was formed there to counter gangsterism in the 1950s, and any gangsters identified received "six of the best" from the headmaster. And in the memoirs of the headmaster in question (Dr G.E.D. Lewis) he gives his own account of these
punishments.
The Razzler: Reunion Gathering & Public Caning [HISTORY]
A Malaysian recalls getting 3 strokes of the rotan in front of his school.
RAAF School Penang: Discipline [HISTORY]
Arguably I should list this school under Australia: it was for the offspring of personnel of an Australian air force base in Malaysia. Four punishment book pages from 1979 to 1981 are reproduced, in which the culprits are aged up to 16 and the canings described as "cuts". There is also a 1981 letter from the Assistant Principal authorising two other members of staff to use corporal punishment, and a poem from the 1960s ("... the thwacking and the cracking of the long canes whacking ..."). The school closed in 1988.
More information and links for School CP in Malaysia: see Country files.
MALTA (these external links will open in a new window)
Norman's agenda [HISTORY]
Interview (2005) with a prominent broadcaster who recalls getting strapped at a boarding school run by Jesuits, St Aloysius College.
NAMIBIA (these external links will open in a new window)
School Beatings Cause Outcry (Alternative link)
"We are just giving them a lash or two, we are not really beating them", says the principal of a Windhoek high school accused of illegal corporal punishment in this March 2005 news item.
Where Policy Hits the Ground (Alternative link) [PDF]
Report (1999) by the US Agency for International Development. Reproduces a 1991 circular to schools from the Ministry of Education informing them that corporal punishment had been ruled unconstitutional. But the practice was deeply entrenched, and took a long time to die out. See pages 18 to 22, 67, 73 and 74.
NETHERLANDS (these external links will open in a new window)
National School Museum (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
How were children punished 400 years ago? Point your mouse at the animated paddle to find the answer.
NEW ZEALAND (these external links will open in a new window)
Top of the list for stern discipline [HISTORY]
Humorous columnist (Oct 2007) in the New Zealand Herald describes getting "six of the best" at Christ's College, a noted boys' school in Christchurch. "The list" was delivered to classrooms each day containing the names of students invited to report for a caning at the end of the day.
Bayfield High School [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
Former students come to the defence of David Benson-Pope, teacher turned politician, accused among other things of excessive caning decades ago (see these May 2005 news items).
Centenarian set on WBHS jubilee [HISTORY]
Article in the Whangarei Northern Advocate about a 101-year-old visiting his old school, where in 1917-1918 a standard punishment was "six whacks on the bottom with a cane".
Noel McKay [HISTORY]
The late former headmaster of Rongotai College gets mixed reviews from some of his former students, including a couple who say they featured as recipients in the famous "caning video" (see these Oct 1981 news items and these Nov 1981 follows-up).
Boys to men at Dilworth [HISTORY]
New Zealand Herald article (March 2006) mentions "frequent floggings" at this Anglican boys' boarding school until 1979, when all canes were consigned to the archives.
Caning log book resurfaces at WHHS [HISTORY]
Rotorua Daily Post news story (March 2006) about the discovery of an old punishment book at a local high school. One recipient of the cane was the present deputy principal, who says it taught him self-respect and to respect others. "It was suitable for the era but that era has gone", he claims.
What About Us? Boys in Schools and Men in Society (Alternative link)
The author of this 1999 essay asserts that boys and men are now, as a result of the feminist revolution, being heavily discriminated against in society -- and, looking at some of the examples he quotes, he does seem to have a point. In schools, he adds, the banning of corporal punishment may be a factor. In his experience as a teacher, CP had "a salutary effect on the behaviour and attitude of some boys", a benefit now denied to them, leading to a great increase in suspensions, the vast majority of which involve boys, to the obvious detriment of their education.
Convent Kid (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Scroll down to "Sister Berchmans' class". The author says his record for the number of 'cuts' received was 16 in one week, around 1960.
James Speight 1837-1912 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Mixed views of this "flogging headmaster". The North Canterbury Education Board's 1894 punishment regulations are quoted. These outlawed canes and sticks, substituting a strap (dimensions quoted).
Psychological devastation caused by corporal punishment [HISTORY]
This is a classic case of a clearly neurotic person with a lot of problems projecting them all on to a perceived single "cause" in childhood -- the strappings and canings he received and witnessed at school sound rather tame, but are now blamed for everything that has gone wrong with his life ever since. Ordinary common sense tells us that there must be a lot more to it than that. One doesn't want to seem unsympathetic but I do think this fashion for people doing their psychotherapy in public is rather regrettable.
An interview with the Rector (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
The Rector (= Headmaster) of Waitaki Boys' High School admits to having been in the past a "conscientious caner". He describes arriving there in 1964 and being provided with a bundle of canes, which he used "when it was necessary". Boys, he says, "generally responded well to caning and discipline was in fact easier". How bizarre, then, that he goes on to oppose its reintroduction "in today's environment" on the grounds that it is "quite rightly regarded as physical assault". This is called having your cake and eating it. Either he was wrong at the time and the law is now right, or he was right then and the law is now wrong. What happened to integrity, and having the courage of one's convictions?
Old Boys' Association [HISTORY]
Also from Waitaki Boys' High, an anecdote about a teacher who maintained that there was nothing like the cane for building character in a boy.
Kaitieke School: School Discipline [HISTORY]
Essay by a present-day Year 8 student calling for a return to more effective methods of punishment. Describes the canings and strappings in use "back when our parents went to school".
Canes, Berets and Gangsta Rap: Disciplining Sexuality in School, 1920-1995 (Alternative link)
[HISTORY]
Long paper for a symposium about Woman Educators, but there are interesting anecdotes, quotations and discussion about, among much else, practices and traditions in the caning of schoolboys (mostly by Male Educators) and its place in the New Zealand culture of masculinity. (Echoes here of the famous Joseph Mercurio book, which indeed is cited as one of the references.) There is also quite a bit about the question of single-sex vs. coeducational schools. I found the whole thing well worth reading, in spite of occasional bits of feminist sociological jargon. It seems to me that much of what the author has to say could apply equally well to certain other cultures, especially Britain.
More information and links for School CP in New Zealand: see Country files.
NIGERIA (these external links will open in a new window)
Morning Assembly in Toro
Hanna and Jorg in Nigeria, June 2003
VSO teacher volunteers report on public floggings in school assembly.
I grew up on the streets [HISTORY] (Alternative link)
Interview (Aug 2004) with Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, who recalls when misbehaving students were called out in morning assembly and given six strokes of the cane in front of the school. He thinks this was very beneficial in keeping him on the straight and narrow.
An unforgettable early experience at BBHS [HISTORY]
Describes both witnessing and receiving public canings at Baptist Boys' High School in the 1980s. One student was allegedly given the choice of expulsion or 36 strokes, and chose the caning, taking all 36 without tears.
The Singapore solution
Mentions the Nigerian practice of "flogging day" when students receive corporal punishment in front of the entire school for accumulated demerits, and suggests something similar would be a good idea in the USA: immigrant kids there "are more terrorized by the disorder in their inner-city American schools than they were by the threat of corporal punishment in schools back home".
PAKISTAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Violence Against Children within the Family and in Schools [PDF]
Sets out school heads' opinions of corporal punishment (most of them think it is necessary) and gives various other survey statistics, including the types of punishment used. One of these is called "murgha banana" or "to assume the position of a cock with his head down and buttocks up", which sounds like an excellent prelude to being spanked. As with much of the material from India, Japan and other places, the definition of "corporal punishment" seems much too widely drawn to be useful.
PERU (these external links will open in a new window)
The Incas [HISTORY]
According to this, the sons of Inca nobles were disciplined during their education by caning, up to ten blows a day on the soles of the feet. This once again disproves claims that corporal punishment was a purely European import.
PHILIPPINES (these external links will open in a new window)
The Gloria in our lives [HISTORY]
Recollections of a private school for boys at which all were ruled by the "paddle of love".
POLAND
See Country files.
ST VINCENT & THE GRENADINES (these external links will open in a new window)
Teachers [HISTORY]
The second item down the page, next to a picture of a former headmaster of Boys' Grammar School, is an anecdote from the 1960s about a boy getting out of the remaining strokes of his caning by means of a trick involving Enos fruit salts.
More information and links for School CP in St Vincent and the Grenadines: see Country files.
SEYCHELLES (these external links will open in a new window)
Committee on Rights of Child concludes thirty-first session
Contains an ambiguous sentence which might mean that CP in schools has been abolished, or only that the government is committed to doing so.
SINGAPORE (these external links will open in a new window)
Won over by bilingual education system
Straits Times report (Dec 2006) about a Korean woman who has taken her son and daughter to live in Singapore so they can benefit from education in English and Mandarin. She is "horrified", however, to discover that Singapore schools use public caning as a punishment, and asserts, bizarrely, that this would never happen in Korean schools. People's ignorance about the conditions in their own country never ceases to amaze. There is probably at least as much school CP in South Korea as in Singapore. It may be true that Korea does not much go in for caning as a formal ceremony in front of the whole school, but there is certainly caning in the classroom and, indeed, sometimes even outdoors within the view of the general public.
The Infusionz Blog
Blog by a 22-year-old. Scroll down to 23 September 2003. His 15-year-old brother had just had the cane for forgetting to bring his PE kit. The elder brother isn't against CP for serious offences, but he thinks this is over the top.
St Patrick's School, Singapore: An Album of Past Images [HISTORY]
Includes a reminiscence from the 1960s, when discipline was very strict (actually it still is): "The caning left marks on their bums for years"! No doubt this is an exaggeration. The author (pictured right) does not tell us whether he received it himself.
CPSR-Global Digest 993
A school principal, asked how she keeps students away from internet porn sites, says "I have a strong cane".
More information and links for School CP in Singapore: see Country files.
SOUTH AFRICA (these external links will open in a new window)
Abbott takes it in his stride [HISTORY]
Interview (2005) with England rugby star Stuart Abbott, who recalls canings at age 16 and 17 at Bishops, an Anglican school in Cape Town, in the 1990s. He was punished for "all kinds of stuff", and tried to get away with wearing five or six pairs of underpants. He thinks it was a good punishment because it only took a few minutes. There was also fagging. This, the author notes, was an education more traditionally English than most of the English members of the present England team experienced.
Spare the rod? [HISTORY]
Severe canings at a High School in 1974 are recalled. A list of boys to be disciplined was read out every day on the school tannoy, and at break time these students had to report to "The Armoury", where two teachers were waiting to administer the punishments, which the writer here describes in detail. He notes that now, with CP outlawed, thuggery is rife in schools, while teachers cower in their staff room.
School of Dope
A teacher at a high school in Bloemfontein describes his day: noise, disruption, lying and cheating, students paying more attention to their phones and MP3 players in class than to the teacher, and walking out of class on a whim. This, he says, is the reality of teaching in a world without corporal punishment.
Egon fired up for trek to cup glory [HISTORY]
Interview (Sep 2004) with rugby star Egon Seconds, who says he got hundreds of lashes at Voortrekker High School in the 1990s, and thinks it did him some good.
No skates here -- just pupils with passion [HISTORY]
Durban Daily News article (September 2003) about a 28-year-old skateboarder who recalls his headmaster in Johannesburg "applying the cane to his ass".
Pupil forces principal to dance to his tune
News story from October 2003 about a schoolboy banned by his headmaster from going to a dance. Somehow this piffling affair reached the courts, where the judge commented that if corporal punishment was still allowed the problem would have been solved.
ANC Daily Newsbriefing, 30 April 1995 (Alternative link)
[HISTORY]
About a quarter of the way down this long page, a feature on the beginning of the campaign to abolish school CP.
Cosas may act over alleged beating (Alternative link)
March 2002 news item in the East London Daily Dispatch. A tardy high school senior refused to be spanked and was sent home, but his parents insisted he be spanked anyway.
Don't drink the water (Alternative link)
A "day in the life of" piece about a schoolteacher who had a nasty experience after caning several children for pouring urine into the teachers' drinking water tank.
I was surprised by teachers' primordial urge for violence [HISTORY]
A columnist in Business Times reminisces (1998) about his school whackings.
One hundred of the best (Alternative link)
Introduction to a series of articles about schools in the new South Africa. Some are still battling to find alternatives to the cane, now banned.
Get to grips with the best of both worlds (Alternative link)
Article from the above series, about a rural high school. Caning of course has been abolished, but the principal misses it, and says some boys ask for it.
Discipline sets a record of achievement (Alternative link)
Another article from the same series. This is about a high school in Soweto which achieves high standards with strict discipline in unpromising conditions. The principal admits to occasional illegal use of corporal punishment, with parental support.
More information and links for School CP in South Africa: see Country files.
SOUTH KOREA (these external links will open in a new window)
Spirit of Jeet Kune Do: Once Upon A Time In A High School (Alternative link)
Review of a film set in 1978 in a school "notorious for harsh corporal punishment". The director wanted realism, so "two male leading characters had no choice but to endure the pain of actually getting spanked with an aluminium baseball bat".
Luck's Adventures
A foreign teacher in a Korean school blogs (Aug 2006) about coming under pressure from the school head to cane disobedient students on their hands or butts.
A Memory in One's School Days, A Whip of Love
From the English magazine of Cheju National University, a pair of articles pro and con school CP. The writer of the anti-CP piece says that over-the-top punishment is sometimes given by angry teachers. The pro-CP contributor, on the other hand, argues that it is an act of love to inflict physical pain on defiant students so that they will develop an attitude of respect.
Corporal punishment in schools (Alternative link)
Long thread on a message board for foreign expats working in Korea, many of whom are teachers. There are robust views on all sides.
The Understanding Teacher (Alternative link)
A former high school student pays tribute to his considerate teacher, Mr Park Jin Yong, who spanked him and a group of his friends instead of referring them for suspension after they were caught playing basketball when they were supposed to be studying.
No Longer a Kids' Game
A father goes to a meeting for prospective parents at a local private school and is surprised to learn that students would be disciplined with corporal punishment.
100th Anniversary of the Birth of George Orwell
This article notes, in passing, that schoolkids with cameras in their mobile phones are now secretly filming their teachers inflicting corporal punishment. (And indeed they are: see for instance these video clips).
Corporal punishment. The long of it. Also most of the short.
See in particular the comment by Jay, a student who is accustomed to bending over for his teacher's "Stick of Love". Much further down the page is a long and heated discussion from which it seems clear that "swats on the butt" are very much the norm in Korea.
Ideas and Ideals: Corporal Punishment (Alternative link)
In 1998 the Ministry of Education issued a special order (quickly revoked) forbidding teachers to use CP. Teachers were described in this January 1999 essay as being very unhappy about it.
More information and links for School CP in Korea: see Country files.
SPAIN (these external links will open in a new window)
A boarding school with a reputation [HISTORY]
Newspaper article (March 2006) about San José School in Campillos (Andalucia), a strict independent boarding school founded in the 1950s. The headmaster claims that CP was allowed up to the 1970s. More recently, in the 1990s, an ex-student claims, "they didn't hit you much ... but if you were a trouble-maker they did smack you". But I suspect this might refer to casual thumping rather than proper formal CP.
SRI LANKA (these external links will open in a new window)
The E.C. Gunasekera Inaugural Memorial Oration by Lalanath De Silva, LLM [HISTORY]
Recollections of canings at Royal College in Colombo.
School bullying epidemic in Sri Lanka
1998 news item about an entire class being caned by prefects.
SUDAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Committee on Rights of Child concludes thirty-first session
CP is widely practised in schools, according to this.
SWEDEN (these external links will open in a new window)
The History of Tensta Gymnasium (Alternative link)
[HISTORY]
In the 17th and 18th centuries, corporal punishment at this school was administered with bundles of twigs that the students themselves had to collect and tie together.
Changing concepts of grammar school teacher authority in Sweden 1927-1965 [HISTORY]
This rather heavy-going academic paper states that teachers' power to administer corporal punishment was removed by legislation in 1928, but not all teachers accepted this at the time.
TAIWAN (these external links will open in a new window)
Andy's Photo Album (School Portraits)
Includes a picture of the author as a small boy with two of his kindergarten teachers. He isn't smiling, he tells us, because one of them spanked him.
Learning English Issue 31
JacksonFive Reference: Corporal Punishment
Debate pro and con between students of English, some of whom are themselves teachers who use CP.
THAILAND (these external links will open in a new window)
Just Beat It (Alternative link)
A foreign teacher of grades 7 to 9 complains (2003) that the students are out of control, until one of the Thai teachers comes along and spanks a boy.
Is caning fun?
Thread on a message board for foreign teachers in Thailand, provoked by the video clip of a mass jocular caning at Bangkok Christian College.
Your views on Thailand's schools (Alternative link)
A BBC message board produces differing opinions on the Thai education system. Several contributors note that at the time (2005) corporal punishment was still widespread.
More information and links for School CP in Thailand: see Country files.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO (these external links will open in a new window)
Education Minister paves new road to hell [HISTORY]
Columnist recounts (January 2001) his own experience of receiving CP and takes an extremely dim view of the government's move to ban it.
School violence nothing new
'Badjohns' who spawned today's criminals
The same columnist (November 2003) expands on his argument (see previous item).
UGANDA (these external links will open in a new window)
Kids speak out on indiscipline
July 2005 newspaper article in which some young students give their views. Several recommend that disobedient pupils should be caned.
Behind the Mask: Uganda (Alternative link)
News item (2003) about an 18-year-old schoolgirl who was caned in front of the whole school for having a lesbian affair with another girl.
From Caning to Campaigning [HISTORY]
A young politician returns from his US college to Uganda, where in the 1980s he was caned regularly for being late to school.
Human Rights Practices for 1999
The US State Department notes that most schools in Uganda use corporal punishment, although this is supposed to be against the law for secondary-level pupils.
UNITED KINGDOM
See separate page.
UNITED STATES
See separate page.
YEMEN (these external links will open in a new window)
Ouch!! Corporal Punishment and Other Means to Rein In Unruly Students
Article (September 1997) from the Yemen Times. Caning is prevalent.
ZAMBIA (these external links will open in a new window)
No Escaping The Pain Of The Cane [HISTORY]
Writer Melvin Durai records that the cane "came down hard on his butt" on at least three occasions at his school in Zambia.
ZIMBABWE (these external links will open in a new window)
Prince Edward School: Chalkdust Jan/Feb 1998 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
Reminiscences of this famous Harare boys' school. In an example of local schoolboy terminology that I had not come across before, getting caned by the headmaster while bending over the back of his chair (described here in the 1950s and 1960s -- scroll down to "Correspondence") was called "being dooked" and strokes of the cane were known as "dooks".
Prince Edward School: Chalkdust Feb/Mar 1997 (Alternative link) [HISTORY]
More on "dooks" at "PE" (see previous item), here written as "docks", which might be a misprint. According to one correspondent (scroll down to "Book borrower"), in the 1940s these "were administered with a light cane precisely across the buttocks, always at exactly the same horizontal position over khaki shorts leaving a single and painful welt, despite the number of strokes received".
More information and links for School CP in Zimbabwe: see Country files.
