Former pupils continue to debate the relative risks associated with the different forms of corporal punishment once employed in schools.
Some contributors argue that striking the hand presented particular difficulties because accurate placement could not be guaranteed if a pupil moved. Others contend that traditional methods involving broader areas of the body were considered less liable to accidental injury.
Such recollections should not be mistaken for medical evidence. Corporal punishment could cause injury, and historical arguments about which method was supposedly “safer” largely reflect the attitudes and assumptions of the period rather than modern clinical guidance.
What is historically significant is that schools themselves differed considerably over what constituted an appropriate punishment.
