School Punishment Book72

Each caner had a book so they tended to develop their own styles. One area where this really shows is that our books had a comments column. Now you know the bureaucratic tendency…..if there is a column fill it with something…..well different caners interpreted this in different ways. For example, some entered additional comments on the offense….eg ‘aggravated by insolence’ ‘reported by a member of the public’….others commented on the character of the boy ‘allowance made: normally good student’ ‘out of character’ or ‘frequent offender, etc., yet others filled it with a comment on the actual punishment. ‘Well taken….’ ‘contrite…’ ‘clearly ashamed’ and in one case, from the 50’s where a caning was abandoned ‘NMF’ was the sole comment, which those certainly with a military or cadet force background will recognize. Often these comments again are interesting in their historical period.