There was a tremendous amount of official beating. The head was a devout believer in the efficacy of cane and slipper. He did not beat boys particularly hard, but he beat them perpetually. He beat them for quite minor misdemeanours and be beat them for doing nothing at all. There was a great deal of talking after lights out. Quite rightly, the head wanted to stop this—although he was psychologically incapable of understanding that allowing children to talk, perhaps for ten minutes, would be regarded as a privilege which would not be abused. Instead, the head crept about the place in tennis shoes, like a cat burglar. When he pounced on a dormitory, he expected the talkers to own up at once; if they did not, all the boys in the dormitory were beaten. This was insane. Small boys, still asleep, were lugged from their beds and told to bend over.
Punished for Bad School Report13
