School corporal punishment memories 1980s

[Cati79]

I remember when I first started year one in Manchester in 1985 I was terrified of getting into trouble. Most of my teachers were actually really nice. I only remember seeing 2 canings in my entire schooling life and the worst physical punishment I ever recieved was a couple of taps with the ruler on the knuckles in 2nd and 4th grade for not paying attention in class. I understand nowadays that this would be considered taboo but it certainly did me no harm and I always remember children actually respecting these sorts of teachers who were strict but fair. I told my dd whose in year 4 about the ruler story and she was horrified but said some of the kids in her class probably could use the ruler every now and then lol. What was your schooling life like back then from the 1980s- till now?

Oh..
I was at a school where there were notorious and mysterious items that you didn't see unless you got them as punishments..a different one for each department. Some were signed with the names of people who had received them. In my first maths lesson some idiot older boys who had flooded toilets were caned across the back in front of us. Its worked for us, if not the recipients-we had a very well bonded year and no one in that class got caned..it was satisfying as someone who used to get picked on by those kind of older bully, to watch cocky become pretend 'OK with this' and then subduement..and it took away some of the invincibility of these bullies. From my perspective, physical punishments were preferable to detentions etc as they were recorded and physical was over with quickly...and they only worked if I thought I deserved it anyway.

I think it's better to use physical punishment than some of the snide passive aggressive comments I've seen (shit) teachers dole out. Less harmful. Sends more of a message. I wouldn't administer it myself, but I don't have a problem with others doing it.

I live in Korea now and they had until very recently corporal punishment in schools. They have a very well ordered society, safe, clean, people generally show respect to elders etc. Not saying it's all down to corporal punishment, of course not, but I also don't think it's always possible to have classes of 30 being controlled with stickers charts and so on. Good teachers can, but not all teachers are good, and not even the best teachers can deal with some stuff.

Guys in the army get physically punished too. Made to hold the plank and get smacked 10 times on the arse. That kind of stuff. Most people accept it as a normal part of life.

It affects different people in different ways of course. I know fellas on a FB group from one of my old schools who still bear grudges with the teachers and if they were in the same situation now would get the law involved.

As I said before, I never think about it unless it is to tell as a funny anecdote to the kids.

To me it was merely a consequence of getting caught for some mischief I had been up to.

Better than lines/detention/loss of privileges. All over in 5 seconds.

Yes they might remember it in 1986, possiably but fourth grade, apart from being an Americanism as far as I recall it was always years or actually classes as in the lowest class was class 1 or 1 teachers intinals, or ladybird(animal/tree/shape) class.

Fourth grade would be the fourth year of school so starting in 1985 then that would make it 1989/90 when it had been illegal for 4 years?!

It says on Wikipedia "corporal punishment was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1986. In other private schools, it was banned in 1998 (England and Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2003 (Northern Ireland).[123]"

Naught GrinandTonicwas trying to point out that you said it was made illegal in 1996, which is eleven years after op started.

news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/25/newsid_2516000/2516621.stm

Ah I pressed the wrong button on my phone then because I typed 1986 not 96

Perhaps it was a private school hence grades.

But I think it's more likely to be someone looking for titillating stories.

TBH whether physical punishment is better for some students is really irrelevant when a sensitive child would be living in ever constant fear of the idea, and when some teachers given that power would so clearly abuse it. There are discipline problems in some schools but I don't think caning would solve that.