However, here there was little evidence of CP going on. I certainly witnessed none, though I did hear of a boy being slippered in another class for ‘back chat’.
Finally, I attended an old-fashioned boys’ public school. CP was certainly used, but slipperings and canings in the Senior School were rare enough to become ‘hot news’ topics around the school very quickly.
In the Junior School, some housemasters were much more likely to slipper boys than others.
This generally happened in private, although I recall a couple of instances when a master administered a severe whacking in the class, or just outside the door, reducing the victim to a sorry, weeping state.
In the Senior School, being caught smoking was generally an automatic caning, although some housemasters never seemed to cane their charges, preferring to issue lines or detentions.
I must have mixed with a bad crowd, as several of my own friends were caned by their housemaster or the headmaster, either for smoking or general misbehavior!