It would be convenient to conclude either that corporal punishment caused lasting harm or that it caused none.
The evidence offered by personal recollection permits neither conclusion.
For many former pupils, the cane appears to have been exactly what their masters intended it to be: an unpleasant consequence of breaking the rules, soon forgotten.
For others, the circumstances surrounding punishment — fear, embarrassment, authority and the spectacle of others receiving similar treatment — appear to have left a considerably deeper impression.
In a still smaller number of accounts, those impressions became associated in adult life with personal interests which the individual himself believes can be traced back to school.
That does not establish scientific cause and effect.
It does suggest that the subject deserves rather more thoughtful examination than the familiar exchanges between those who declare that “the cane never did me any harm” and those who regard every use of it as barbarous.
