The limitations should not obscure the richness of the material.
Taken together, the accounts provide an unusually detailed picture of everyday school discipline.
The Pupil
We know the approximate age of many respondents.
This allows comparison between primary pupils, younger secondary pupils and those approaching school-leaving age.
The Offence
We have examples ranging from talking and poor work to fighting, smoking, truancy and theft.
This permits us to examine the relationship between misconduct and punishment.
The Disciplinarian
The evidence identifies classroom teachers, senior mistresses, deputy heads, housemasters, heads of department, headmistresses and headmasters.
This reveals the hierarchy through which school authority operated.
The Setting
Punishment occurred in classrooms, offices, studies and other parts of the school.
Some incidents were private.
Others were witnessed.
The setting affected the pupil’s experience.
Repetition
Crucially, the survey asks whether the same offence was repeated.
This gives us at least one practical measure of deterrence.
Personal Judgement
Respondents were also asked whether they considered punishment effective.
Their answers do not constitute scientific proof.
They do, however, reveal how those who experienced the system interpreted it.
A Human Record
Taken together, these details transform abstract discussion into social history.
We no longer have merely a statement that corporal punishment existed.
We see how it fitted into the ordinary school day.
We see the warning, the offence, the journey to an office, the return to class, the reaction of companions and sometimes the response at home.
It is in these ordinary details that the survey possesses its greatest value.
