The Times, London, 13 April 1900

The annual report of the Executive Committee of the National Union of Teachers, which will be presented to the conference at York on Monday next states that during the past year steady progress has been made in the matter of education throughout the country, and that in this important work the union has taken its full share. […] Among the questions dealt with by the education committee has been that of corporal punishment. The committee are glad to report that all the evidence at their disposal shows that there is a steady decrease in the amount of such punishment inflicted, and that those objectionable forms of punishment which at one time were not unknown in the schools have now been practically obliterated by the more enlightened regulations which School Boards are adopting, under which certificated teachers of a school are empowered to exercise the power necessary to maintain discipline and secure a good moral tone amongst their pupils. The committee are convinced that so long as disorderly children from neglected homes must be admitted to the schools it will be impossible to banish corporal punishment; “and the practically unanimous verdict of all who have examined this question with care shows clearly that the surest way of reducing the amount of corporal punishment is to allow it to be exercised under reasonable regulations.”