The first time I saw a teacher actually put someone over their knee and spank them was in my nursery school.
Mrs Pegram was in charge of the running of Ham Newman House Nursery.
From what I remember she wasn’t a goddamn awful woman in fact I always thought she was actually very kind and she seemed to be a respected pillar of the community.
However later on in life in a discussion with a dinner lady who actually remembered her I learnt that she use to lock children up when they misbehaved.
As well as this I also remember her threatening to tie a boy called Adam to a chair though I don’t ever recall her doing so.
On reflection this was the very early seventies and Miss Pegram I would have believed to be in her late fifties at this time.
I seem to recall she was also a short lady of Jamaican origin with a perm who always wore a checked dinner ladies jacket and of course slippers.
To cut along story short one day one of the children decided to steal one of her slippers and was put over Miss Pegrams knee and playfully spanked with it.
There is no doubt about this was all done innocently in fun.
As for Miss Pegram locking children in cupboards and tying them up when they misbehave there are two sides to this coin.
There is no doubt this act is totally wrong and if a child care worker, teacher, parent or anyone in professional responsibility did this today they would almost defiantly be arrested and there would be a public
outcry.
However back then this type of thing went entirely unchecked and I suspect a few decades before my birth was seen as a perfectly acceptable means of controlling the young.
When I was at school corporal punishment was still used though not as often as it had been used possibly a few years previous, thus it was being phased out.
I vaguely remember quite often it was discussed on programmes such as “John Cravens Newsround” and “Nationwide”.
Nationwide I actually remember them showing an image of a schoolboy being put over a desk and caned.
Now excuse me for suggesting such a thing but don’t you somehow think that this would rather be a nice image for someone to watch who actually enjoyed spanking or disciplining the young?.
This aspect of corporal punishment was never and still seems to never really be looked into and back then and seemed to be swept conveniently under the carpet on many occasions.
It doesn’t take the brains of Einstein to realise it did go on and there have been many casualties along the way.
You only have to look at the abuse scandals in those homes in Wales that have left adults permanently scared for life from their childhood.
