Nor was the cane a particularly economical punishment in terms of time. A prefect’s caning could occupy a quarter...
I cannot remember any comparable prestige attaching to the receipt of corporal punishment at either my junior or secondary...
The decisive factor for me was the possibility that my mother might learn that I had been in trouble...
Perhaps that is why the subject remains so fascinating to those who experienced it. The boy who stood outside...
There is something irresistible about asking whether the schools of yesterday really were better than the schools of today....
The pupils selected for Charles Darwin Grammar School were hardly educational failures. They were regarded as able youngsters, with...
If the academic demands of Charles Darwin Grammar came as a surprise, its approach to discipline was equally unfamiliar....
The central question of this series concerned single-sex education. Would boys and girls behave differently once separated? In certain...
The most revealing moments in That’ll Teach ’Em were not necessarily examinations or disciplinary confrontations. They were the moments...
The great temptation when watching That’ll Teach ’Em is to decide that one educational era must be superior to...
The closing years of the 1960s must have been a curious time for parents, teachers and anyone else responsible...
My own memories of junior school in the 1960s illustrate just how normal corporal punishment could appear at the...