Looking back, it is quite easy to say (or think) I would have simply refused to be punished on my last day. But it’s a bit like thinking after an event ‘If only I’d said…’.
At the age of 16 I was caned on what was my last day at secondary school (shortly after my final exam – CSE German). It was for having failed to attend a detention about a month earlier but the Headmaster was considerate enough to wait until after the exams so as not to disrupt my revision.
I remember challenging him at the time whether it was really necessary to punish me, but he informed me that he had already caned two other boys who had failed to attend the same detention.