North West – SCP Accounts5

sorepants,
The school skirts of the more distant past were made of heavier worsted  material before the days of nylon and  thinner cotton so perhaps to make punishments more effective skirts were turned up. Although I never knew of it myself perhaps some boys were caned across their underpants. The other alternative for both boys and girls were canings across their hands. I know that many youngsters were spanked across their bottoms at home very few parents kept a cane for it.

As I’ve said before, I was a witness to a girl having her thick corduroy skirt lifted before she was slippered on her knickers (one stroke). That was in November 1957, and we were either seven or eight years old at the time. It’s clear that, as SOTB says, the punishment would not otherwise have been effective; my feeling is that the teacher realised this only after telling the girl to bend over.

I think it is I who coined the term ‘unspecified anatomy’.  It simply means the part of the body where the implement was applied is unknown, in other words, the person recalling the punishment has not specifically stated it.

Most of the accounts I post are from social media sites.  Unfortunately, accessing actual punishment books is not easy.  The ones I have seen are mostly photographs taken by those attending school reunions, so clearly some schools do still store them.  Some are also stored in official national archives, and to be honest I’m unsure if the general public can actually access them.  I also think it is highly likely that some of have ended up in private collections.  Furthermore, there is a degree of variation of the details included.  Each one I have seen has included the date, offence, number of strokes and the teacher’s signature.  Some also list the implement, where it was applied, and if there was a witness.

Regarding the accounts I post on here, it is my belief that they are genuine, but in some cases possibly exaggerated.

I, Researcher:
Thanks for your reply. I was already aware of most that you had said today. Indeed most SCP record books are difficult to access for the general public. Yes, some schools still have their record books and do occasionally display them at reunions etc.
I was thinking back the other day to my schooldays when SCP was accepted by all and sundry, the teachers, pupils and parents accepted it as the norm. Not all teachers approved of it including some who had to administer it. Back in the past parents had little say in the way that schools punished their children unless it became abusive and it was difficult to define what was abuse and what was proper SCP.
As a youngster I remember being called out to the front of the class and bending over the desk for a few hard whacks with a plimsoll. It never occurred to me to refuse to bend over back then. Corporal punishment for youngsters was in the 1950s/60s, when I was at school the usual way to punish bad behaviour. Plenty of parents used spanking at home too. At home there were no rules or guidelines of how to punish children. Fortunately most parents never overdid things but some did spank quite hard and frequently. Whilst bare bottom spanking was virtually unheard of in schools it wasn’t at home.

As far as I am aware there were no national requirements concerning the use, content and disposal of punishment books, just as there were no national standards regarding six stroke maximums and many other SCP myths.

LEAs  controlling state schools in a given area sometimes had their own regulations, which were not laws but just, errm, regulations.  These might say what should happen to completed punishment books, but then again they might not.  In some cases punishment books from state schools have finished up in private hands, often after having been found abandoned in cupboards when schools closed and buildings were cleared or demolished.  Where schools have remained in existence sometimes books have been retained at the school or its successor.  Commonly books have been passed to Local Authority archivists for retention and have had a variety of local ‘Closed for access until’ standards applied to them.

Private schools and sometimes denominational schools have largely done their own thing as regards punishment books.  Quite often there was a requirement for punishment books to be produced  to meeting of governing bodies.  Often the more long established schools have retained them in their own archives.  The punishment books for the junior school I attended and its associated senior school are held by the local C of E diocese.  As in the public sector many punishment books from private schools have ended up in private hands by various routes.

In the past we had a contributor who was a serious collector of punishment books and certainly over the years I have seen several for sale in various places.  I no longer follow eBay, but in the past they often had some listed.  We also had a contributor who as well as being a school governor regularly looked up punishment books in local authority and school archives when access was available.  Batfinch, are you still with us under another guise?

The Forum has also been the scene, of one, or was it two (alas memories grow dim) punishment book faking episodes.  One of these has a lengthy thread devoted to it.  I had a rather close involvement in the latter episode, though not in the actual faking.  I eventually advised the person who probably was responsible for said faking how to destroy the evidence.  It was the least I could do having worked hard to persuade them to post the darn thing when I still thought it might be genuine.

It has always seemed to me that for persons possessed of several different coloured inks, a selection of different pens and the ability to write consistently in several different hands faking punishment books would be relatively easy.  Whether the rewards would be commensurate with the labour involved is questionable though.  Nowadays probably not, and as new punishment books on the market are quite rare now fakery would be immediately suspected.

However in the days when there were several punishment books on the market, a bit of research, a carefully selected school closed for a number of years and a very short punishment book might have been profitable.  Probably a girls’ school caning on the bottom with skirts raised would have done the trick.  After all something similar worked for all those tawses sold off at extortionate prices by a Scottish dealer on the dubious and unsubstantiated claim that they were wielded by a Maths Miss at an exclusive scholastic establishment for young ladies.  

And as regards raised skirts for the purposes of administering SCP to girls Alan Turing remembers it, and so do I.  Those who were there do.  Those who weren’t don’t.  And so it is with a great many aspects of SCP.

Just a short comment on the “unspecified anatomy”. I fully agree with I Researcher’s policy of only specifying the target area for SCP where it is clearly stated by the person posting.

I think most people giving their reminiscences of SCP in a school Facebook group are talking to their own peers. Hence there is no need to specify the target. I had (still have) a puzzle with the local Catholic primary school. There were many memories of receiving the cane but only one girl gave a hint of the target area. She said some of the girls put rulers in the back of their long socks to reduce the effects of the cane. I have no idea whether this was common or unusual.

The great majority of classroom CP was ‘on the spot’ without any warning to use padding. Also to be discovered using padding would have lead to a more forceful punishment. With visits to the headmaster or mistress I suspect that he/she would have been an expert at spotting additional protection. As I remember, 60 years ago! I never knew of anyone trying to use padding of any  sort.
Moving away from the use of padding, did youngsters who were spanked at home accept SCP better than those who escaped home discipline. As I remember most home discipline was often trousers down and over the knee. Also many home spankings tended to stop at a younger age than school ones. My school caned fifth formers and on the rare occasion a lower sixth lad might get caned especially if in the same trouble as a fifth former.

Hello Oliver_Sydney,

I assume from the context that in #46 above you are referring to a school  in Australia.  I don’t know about Australia, but I would have said caning on the backs of the calves (which is probably the punishment being referred to) was pretty rare in the UK.  However it was I believe not uncommon at one time in the Republic of Korea and possibly in other Asian nations.  I have surreptitiously shot classroom video somewhere of both girls and boys being punished in this manner.  I seem to recall that in one case they were required to stand on a chair, presumably to save the teacher stooping slightly.

No authentic pictures of girls in knee length socks being so caned came up, but a DuckDuckGo search for ‘caning  on backs of calves’ produced several alarming pictures of the calves of children allegedly so caned by school teachers.  It also produced this Twitter item complete with a clearly posed video of an (adult) schoolgirl being so caned by a (fantasy) teacher while standing on an item of furniture.  The ‘schoolgirl’ is wearing white socks but, as was I believe schoolgirl fashion at one time, they are rolled down.  Or possibly this was done for the video.  Associated with the video are several comments by fans of the practice.  In actuality for real school children I imagine it was very painful.

I am though surprised that a ruler down the back of the socks would escape detection.  Schoolgirl socks are usually fairly form fitting and not only would a ruler be clearly visible under the sock but the sound of the cane striking would also be completely different.  I suspect that a great many ‘padding’ accounts are fictional, though in some cases elapsed time may permit their vendors to to believe that they actually happened.  Extra pairs of underwear I am happy to believe.  Not so rulers and exercise books.

You are of course absolutely correct in saying that in school Facebook groups members who genuinely attended the school (hopefully the vast majority) will know how SCP was administered so there is no need to give details.  A pity though, because it enables assumptions such as that the substantial majority of caning of schoolgirls was on the hand to be propagated and supported more readily without supporting evidence.  Personally I find it significant that a number of references to schoolgirl canings in UK based biographies and autobiographies, usually more detailed and literate than Facebook entries, specifically mention punishment on the bottom, probably fully as many as mention punishment on the hand.

Hello Another Lurker

Thank you for your comments. You correctly infer that I am referring to a school in Australia, in fact the local Catholic school near where I grew up. However Australia was still very British at that time, although the Catholic system would have been influenced by Ireland.

Having a look at the Facebook group again I see the cane, ruler or feather duster on the back of the legs was quite common for younger children in both state and Catholic schools. However the sheer range of implements used and target areas was impressive. I think basically whatever was at hand and in range. The official rules in state schools were clear (cane on the hand) and that is clearly the most common for older primary school boys and girls and high school boys. State high school girls were exempt from SCP.

As you say, some descriptions of padding will be exaggerated and in some cases the teacher probably didn’t care, especially when punishing groups.

I did another scan of the school I was referring too in case I had missed a post that would help. I found these posts:
Paul: Sr Eileen Mary gave me three smacks on the backside in front of the whole class for answering her question, “who is the naughtiest boy in year 2? ” James D.. I blurted, we all knew who she meant, I just wasn’t supposed to answer her rhetorical question LOL
Dominic: Sister Margaret (scary, ruler over knuckles)
William: mr c.. ( what a b..) I’m sure we didn’t deserve the cane that much, he got the sack when he drew blood from Danny H..’s wrist.
Hilary: My worst memory was mrs f.. putting me over her knee and belting me!! Even worse, I can’t remember why???
Lisa: What about Sr Ellen and her Bitter Aloes? She used to threaten us with all the time!

Another_Lurker wrote: ↑

Jun 07, 2023

Hello Oliver_Sydney,

I assume from the context that in #46 above you are referring to a school  in Australia.  I don’t know about Australia, but I would have said caning on the backs of the calves (which is probably the punishment being referred to) was pretty rare in the UK.  However it was I believe not uncommon at one time in the Republic of Korea and possibly in other Asian nations.  I have surreptitiously shot classroom video somewhere of both girls and boys being punished in this manner.  I seem to recall that in one case they were required to stand on a chair, presumably to save the teacher stooping slightly.

No authentic pictures of girls in knee length socks being so caned came up, but a DuckDuckGo search for ‘caning  on backs of calves’ produced several alarming pictures of the calves of children allegedly so caned by school teachers.  It also produced this Twitter item complete with a clearly posed video of an (adult) schoolgirl being so caned by a (fantasy) teacher while standing on an item of furniture.  The ‘schoolgirl’ is wearing white socks but, as was I believe schoolgirl fashion at one time, they are rolled down.  Or possibly this was done for the video.  Associated with the video are several comments by fans of the practice.  In actuality for real school children I imagine it was very painful.
…

At my primary school in the early 1960’s, boys (but not girls as far as I remember) were often punished by being slapped hard on the calves. We all wore shorts and any long socks were pulled down so that we got the slaps on the bare skin. It was indeed very painful, far more than you might think, it stung horribly.