There are few questions about schooldays more calculated to revive old memories than this: if a boy had been offered the choice between detention and the cane, which would he have chosen?
In my own case, the answer would have been detention. At least, that would have been my decision for most of my school career. Towards the end, however, I suspect that I might have viewed the matter rather differently.
I was afraid of the cane and disliked intensely the indignity which accompanied its administration. That fear, it must be admitted, did not always prevent me from behaving irresponsibly. There were occasions when youthful high spirits, or merely poor judgement, got the better of me.
It was only after I had left school that I began to look upon the matter in a somewhat different light. I came to understand that fear was an important part of the cane’s deterrent effect. A punishment which inspires no apprehension can hardly be expected to deter anyone.
Over the years I have found it particularly interesting to discuss the subject with former schoolboys and to hear their recollections of visits to the Headmaster’s study. The experience varied considerably from one school to another and, indeed, from one boy to another. What one remembered as a terrifying ordeal, another might recall almost as a badge of honour.
Only my secondary school employed the cane. On occasions it was administered by prefects, who were restricted to three strokes, and on others by the Headmaster, who was not subject to such a limitation.
There were two occasions on which, in theory at least, I might have found myself receiving it. In practice, however, I came nowhere near such a fate.
The only detentions I ever served were two occasions on which the whole form was punished collectively for some offence or other. I never received an individual detention. At that school a detention was entered upon one’s report and school record, and my record, as far as I could manage it, had to remain whiter than white.
Those who have followed these recollections will probably have little difficulty in guessing which punishment I should have selected had the choice ever been offered to me.
Nevertheless, there were arguments on both sides.
The cane had, admittedly, one possible advantage. Had I actually experienced it, I might have been better equipped to take part in those interminable discussions in which schoolboys compared their experiences of punishment.
But that was about as far as the advantages went.
The procedure was, to my mind, profoundly undignified. Whether the punishment was administered by a prefect or by the Headmaster, the boy was required to touch his toes, or to approach that position as closely as circumstances permitted.
A prefect’s caning had the additional embarrassment of an audience. Other prefects who happened to be in their common room at the appointed time might be present to witness the proceedings.
Then there was the question of pain. I never heard a boy who had been caned at that school suggest that it did not hurt. Some said very little about it, but I cannot recall anyone claiming that the experience was painless.
