(I always add the following disclaimer when talking about this book in later life, Farley seems to have become opposed to corporal punishment in schools, despite his prominent though limited advocacy of it in Secondary Modern Discipline. I disagree with his change of heart, but I feel it would be absolutely unfair to a writer who I regard as having made me a much better teacher, to not point out, his views on that point may have changed over his life – I say ‘may have’ because somebody who knows him better than I has seriously suggested to me that his apparent change of heart was more a matter of wanting to share his ideas with teachers of the 1990s and knowing they wouldn’t even listen to somebody who was seen as advocating corporal punishment – as it was no longer an option in England, there was no point in advocating it, and if backing away with it meant his other ideas were taken more seriously, all to the good.)
