The primary schools were generally mixed sex and, although both sexes were subject to CP, it was more common with boys than with girls. I understand that the nuns would sometimes smack the back of the legs or use a short cane. The leather was also used, depended on the individual teacher. Secondary schools were […]

From your description it seems that the Christian Brothers were quite “leather-happy” and that CP was the order of the day in Irish schools. But you mention only boys, was it the same for girls, or were they more lenient with girls? I imagine that girls were taught by nuns, and that boys and girls […]

Usually carried by the Brother in a pocket inside his cassock and available to be brought out quickly when required. “The leather” was in very regular daily use in most schools and was applied across the pupil’s hand, rather than up the hand as in Scotland. Three strokes across each hand was not an uncommon […]

In southern Ireland the government essentially handed over the education system to Roman Catholic orders such as The Sisters of Mercy and, mainly, The Christian Brothers. The cane and ferula (commonly known as “The Leather” or Irish Leather”) were regularly used. In secondary schools the leather was more common. A relative of the Scottish tawse, […]

I have only read a few pages from the hundreds, possibly thousands,of pages from the report commissioned by the Irish government recently about abuses in church-run Irish schools in the past. Apart from the other abuses and depravities which went on in these institutions, which makes one almost sick to read them, and which is […]

A nephew was allowed to choose his high school from three main contenders. He researched the matter carefully and chose a traditional boys’ school and prospered there. He could have chosen a school that used the cane much less but this did not seem to rate in his considerations. An acquaintance told me of moving […]

There has been abusive school corporal punishment in various places and at various times, perhaps lots of it. But abusive CP was not universal. Children need and most want and accept boundaries with clear consequences when those boundaries are crossed. In my experience, boys prefer the boundaries to be far off and simple and the […]

Corporal Punishment is still legal in America, the only industrialized nation on the planet where it is in fact still legal. In fact, Wikipedia says that, in Europe, corporal punishment in schools is legal in France and in the Czech Republic, both of which are (1) industrialized, and (2) on the planet. More seriously, it does seem to […]

These problems actually feed off each other. The research shows that corporal punishment leads to increased aggression, including bullying. When kids start acting out and becoming more aggressive to other kids we rightly take action however, in far too many cases that response is to inflict still more corporal punishment. This vicious cycle doesn’t surprise […]

Serving licks or more technically speaking; Corporal punishment, restraint, seclusion and other forms of discipline inflicted by teachers and administrators have the same effects that bullying and harassment by a students peers do. It doesn’t matter whether it is kids or teachers doing the hitting or intimidating, they all create an environment of fear and […]