British Medical Journal, London, 5 January 1935, p.39

Correspondence

I remember on several occasions as a teacher inquiring of girls of 12 and 13 who arrived at school crying why they were crying, and receiving the reply: “Mi father (or mother)’s just given me t’belt.” Further inquiries revealed the fact that the belt was practically always applied to bare skin with the child across the knee and the undergarments drawn down. I remember, too, visiting a miner’s cottage and hearing loud screams as I walked up the path. I opened the door and walked in to find the miner, with his eldest daughter, aged about 15, across his knee, vigorously applying a slipper to the girl’s unprotected seat, while the mother stood complacently by. I remonstrated strongly with the couple, while the child hastily adjusted her clothing and fled sobbing into the back room. The parents, however, were adamant. The girl had taken to staying out very late at night. She had been warned several times, but had taken no notice; now she had been punished and there was an end of the matter.SIR, — I was interested to observe Dr. R. L. Kitching’s letter about corporal punishment in schools in the British Medical Journal of December 22nd, 1934 (p. 1178). Although not qualified to speak on the medical aspect of such correction I often encountered it as a school teacher in the Durham mining area, and, after my marriage, when visiting patients in my late husband’s practice among the mining community. It is more years than I care to remember since I lived in the mining area and times may have changed, but I think, in the face of such severity in the home, it is expecting rather too much of teachers to maintain order by other methods than corporal punishment, for a girl who is accustomed to being punished as mentioned above is not likely to be unduly hurt by two or three taps on the hand with a cane, and is still less likely to be amenable to milder methods of correction. Dr. Kitching is approaching the matter from the wrong angle. His first endeavour should be to abolish corporal punishment in the home, and it will then be time enough to abolish it at school. I am, etc., HARRIET SMITH. Southend-on-Sea, Dec. 24th, 1934.