I have just heard a radio programme referring to the cane in School and the statement was made that the existance of the cane did not contribute to school discipline. I do not recall the cane at KBGS, perhaps I was a good boy or just lucky to avoid it. However, I do believe that it is the fear of the punishment that is the best deterrant to crime or misbehaviour. The same applies in every day life, if the punishment suites the crime, then that is surley a deterrant. Luckily I am not a Court Judge, I would surely be the original hanging Judge, after all the good book does say an eye for an eye. Perhaps a hiding from Frizzie was deterrant enough in those days !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) app. 1943 to 48

Current location (optional) Steeton now West Wales

No cane when you were there? Wow!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) leeds

I had the cane from "mad dog" Whathey twice,I think, can't remember what for. Some trifling indiscretion, no doubt. It just made me more carefull not to get found out.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

As a schoolmaster I never needed to have recourse to the headmaster's cane because the law gave me a reasonably free hand in the classroom. I occasionally used that hand though never heavily. I think I then believed (it was right at the start of my career in education) that something magical about my personality meant that I never had any discipline problems; my relationships with the pupils (as they were then less grandiosely known) was always friendly. I could (and occasionally did) turn on the livid anger act, but what I was not aware of then and have only become aware of long after (like now!) is that, as in all things, context is everything, or almost everything. The kids respected/feared schoolteachers; they generally believed that what a school was doing for them was worthwhile, so they generally conformed; they knew that if they were in trouble at school their parents would generally take the view that the school was right and they were wrong. There were always, of course, those who would "try it on" but I never knew of any case of violence of teacher against pupil or pupil against teacher. Admittedly, I was teaching in a small-town grammar school in the first half of the sixties and, I suspect, was in a very privileged position. The kids from the secondary modern just down the road were reckoned to be less respectful of anything or anyone connected with 'school'. Perhaps the key to 'discipline', or its low profile then, was that it started and was maintained in the home much more widely than appears to be the case now. 'Discipline' - and the word has many connected meanings - is fundamentally about creating order out of chaos, but if 'chaos' is what kids have experienced in their formative years, prior to their school years, teachers have a tough time of it. 'Fear' of the cane or any other punitive measure is hardly a deterrent in those circumstances - as our current crime figures and bulging prisons clearly demonstrate.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1951-58

I don't think that I was particularly unruly, but I did get the cane from Wathey and the pump plus the edge of a steel rule (supplied by Barry Lorrimer) from Snakey Emery.

Even in primary school, I got the pump from teachers in my penultimate and ultimate years (if anyone else went to Haworth, Messrs Stephens and Scarborough). I still shudder when I think about the sadistic treatment I received from an older female teacher (Florence Shuttleworth) when I was about 7, she grabbed me by the hair and shook my head for what seemed like an eternity.

Nevertheless, I didn't tell my parents, as previously stated, they would have taken the line that I deserved it.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, Australia via Haworth

I remember being caned by Old Nick Hind, but don't remember whether or not it hurt unduly. I think it was the headmaster's duty (privilege?) to carry out corporal punishment, and fortunately for the canees Old Nick was not a physically powerful man. Had Stockdale or Swift been headmaster, I'm sure my memories would be more vivid.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-57

Current location (optional) Melbourne

As a teacher, I strove for a classroom atmosphere where the kids could learn what I taught. I remembered (and used to effect)how, at KBGS, some (at times all) of my contemporaries made that difficult for the caped crusaders from the staff room. Even today I struggle to discriminate between the terms "discipline" and "control" - and I am still not sure which of these I achieved on a "good" day. But, whichever it was, it seemed to advance the agenda of the curriculum handed down.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln (now)

I taught for many years and later taught teachers what I learned during my teaching experience and what I tried to hand on to trainees was that, certainly in the primary sector, a naughty child was a bored child.
Boredom derived from the work being too simple for the child or too difficult. If the work was challenging but accessible most children applied themselves quietly enough and even when they were talking they were talking about their work.
When at Eastwood Junior I had a ruler broken on me by Miss Lambert and she always used two after that. They made a fine cracking sound I can tell you. Made my hands ring and blowing on them didn't help. A good one across the back of the legs really stung, too and hey! I was a good boy, I was. I have to admit that occasionally when we were supposed to be reading quietly I went on a crawl about to pull some girl's hair. I got caught now and then but it was certainly a buzz that crawl about, quite exciting, but there you go, ...boredom. Arthur

I don't know if it made the international news, but in Auckland yesterday an "international student" from Korea, 17 years old, attacked the form teacher, stabbing him in the back as he wrote on a white board.No one really knows yet of course what is behind it, but the tv news tonight has been talking to other students and it is alleged that the student took exception to the teacher saying "not nice "things about Korea and swearing about Korea. the Headmaster says that he has never had a complaint about this teacher. The News reporter did say that their questions had revealed that the man was not very popular.Teaching will never be the same. Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

My first headmaster gave me, as a teacher, comprehensive advice on how to maintain maximum possible sight of pupils in the classroom for whatever type of activity was in progress. Invaluable - and here am I to prove the point.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln (now)

" (if anyone else went to Haworth, Messrs Stephens and Scarborough). I still shudder when I think about the sadistic treatment I received from an older female teacher (Florence Shuttleworth) when I was about 7, she grabbed me by the hair and shook my head for what seemed like an eternity."
From John Felvus..

Ahh! Yes.. Never had the pleasure of the Scarborough fare but Stephens and Mrs. Shuttleworth for sure..

Mrs. Shuttleworth caused me emotional problems in all math classes following her pummeling me in the back with one knuckle and screaming at me to "get it right."

Some scars stay with us for the rest of our lives...:)
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At KBGS, Miss Wright, French teacher, caught a boy, Leech, reading his comic minutes after she had entered the room and begun the lesson. He had his desk lid up while he read.She banged the lid against his bent head and then seized his hair and began shaking his head. Much to her horror she finished up with a handful of his hair. With an even whiter face than she normally displayed she put the hair back on his head and patted it into place, wiped her shaking hand on her gown and returned to explaining the difference between the use of 'qui' and 'que'.

Thinking further back re- clouts etc., does anyone remember a short little French Master, who I think had a small thin moustach. We had a boy "Miffy" in our class who caught this chaps anger one day. Miffy walked to the front of the class, smacked the master on the chin, almopst laying him out. Walked out of School and was never heard of again. Unfortunatly, the nasty little French Master learned nothing from thid clout and was even more agressive from then on

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1943

Current location (optional) Steeton, now West WAles