No responsible researcher should pretend that an informal Facebook survey can provide exact national statistics.
It cannot.
There are too many unknowns.
Some former pupils never use social media.
Some schools have lively historical groups while others have none.
Memories fade.
People exaggerate.
Others remain silent.
School names change.
Dates become confused.
Yet the material still has considerable historical value.
The ordinary experiences of schoolchildren were not always preserved in government documents or newspapers.
Social-media reminiscences may therefore capture details of everyday life that would otherwise disappear completely.
The important requirement is to distinguish clearly between recollection, corroboration and documented fact.
A Social History Still Being Written
The emerging picture is one of considerable variation.
Corporal punishment of girls certainly existed in British schools, but its frequency and form differed widely according to place, period and individual institution.
Northern Ireland, Wales and the North-East already show noticeably different patterns.
Scotland may reveal another pattern again.
The research also demonstrates how difficult seemingly simple historical questions can become.
What did somebody mean when they said they were “caned”?
Was the date remembered correctly?
Was the school still operating under the same name?
Did the newspaper report the event accurately?
Are several Facebook comments genuinely independent accounts, or have later memories been influenced by earlier discussions?
These questions cannot always be answered.
But asking them is essential.
For the moment, therefore, the figures should be treated not as the final word on British school discipline but as an expanding collection of historical testimony.
When the wider regional analysis is complete, the picture should become clearer.
Until then, the research continues — one school, one old newspaper and one former pupil’s recollection at a time.
