All punishment was public. Even if a boy was strapped behind closed doors, in an institution with private corners he was forced to parade his bravado or his tears to the public scrutiny of his peers. In the classroom he was on stage. He had to stand, hand outstretched and watched by half sympathetic, half merciless, never revolutionary peers. His only weapon against the ‘cuts’ was a stoical unflinching acceptance of the pain and cold unspeaking gaze at his tormentor.