There is one uncomfortable aspect of school corporal punishment which cannot be ignored: the belief, expressed by some former pupils, that certain teachers actually enjoyed administering it.
This is a difficult subject because memory alone cannot tell us what was taking place in a teacher’s mind.
A frightened or resentful child might naturally interpret a stern manner, a smile or an apparent enthusiasm for punishment as evidence of enjoyment. Decades later, it would be unfair to present such impressions as established facts.
Nevertheless, the frequency with which the idea appears in recollections of old school discipline makes it worthy of examination.
Some former pupils remembered particular teachers as being unusually ready to reach for the cane, strap or slipper. In one account, a former pupil remembered a teacher smiling during punishment and interpreted this as evidence that she enjoyed using the cane or slipper.
Other recollections speak quite explicitly of teachers whom the former pupils believed “enjoyed” giving the cane or took pleasure in doing so.
These statements cannot establish the teachers’ motives.
They can, however, establish something else of considerable importance: this was how some children perceived the adults who were punishing them.
And perception mattered.
