OU on the BBC: Justice: Timeshift - Crime and Punishment - The Story of Corporal Punishment

I followed the programme with deep interest. I note the use of language eg "smacking, hitting, caning and of course "beating". I was a secondary school teacher from the `60s to the `80s. I never "beat" a boy - I occasionally "caned" them. Why? As one contributor stated: fear of losing control.
On one occasion a group of boys were horseplaying in a corridor during break and I caned all five. Years later I bumped into one of them, by then a young man. We chatted about the old days and he referred to that incident. *Our respect for you went up because you also caned B*****t even though it was clear that he was your favourite in that class. But then you were our favourite teacher"
During the `80s I taught an English group who, by a quirk of timetabling and setting consisted of 20 boys; no girls. For the first few months I was determined to stamp my authority on them: again "fear of losing control". We settled into a more relaxed relationship.They enjoyed my lessons and I their responsiveness. But teenagers have their moods and I occasionally had to crack down on surliness form some of then. One lesson one of the boys became increasingly disruptive - low level at first but then increasingly so until the tone of the lesson was collapsing. I called him out to the front and said. "Look, the other lads and I want to get on with the lesson. You are becoming a total nuisance. Can`t you accept you`re in the wrong?" Reply, "No, and I don`t give a toss." To my shame I completely lost my self-control and flung him across my teacher`s area. He bounced off my filing cabinet and on to the floor. He picked himself up and went back to his seat. I was shaking so with anger and humiliation, I had to sit at my desk to finish the lesson.
One of the boys came back with my class register and scrutinized me. "Are you okay Sir? "No J****y. I don`t think I`ll have a job in the morning. We shook hands. "Goodbye, J****y", I said. "It`s all right, Sir. We told B***y that if he tells on you, all us boys will beat him senseless. He deserved what you did to him and more".
This was when official corporal punishment was restricted to the Headmaster and his deputies, and they judged whether physical punishment was called for at each act of misbehaviour, or a lesser one, or suspension. This, to some extent, took away authority from the classroom teacher and impinged on effective delivery of lessons. I left teaching in 1986 because disruption was becoming more widespread in every classroom. I have young teachers in my family and they all say classroom control is getting more difficult because there seem to be even more children with behavioural problems, more children who are statemented, more children who perceive learning and even school itself as boring. I was, according to schoolchildren`s memories of me as "strict but fair" and even as a "fantastic English teacher". I meet some of them online through Friends Reunited and exchange emails with them. True, it`s only a few. But it is gratifying to discover that I made a difference to them, gave some of them a lifelong love of English Literature, and inspired some to read English at university and even some to become English teachers themselves. I smile at the "Make a difference" adverts for teaching current on tv and in the press. I was doing that fifty years ago. But I emphasise, I would NOT be messed about in my classes. My occasional lapses into temper loss and "assault on the person" I truly hated and always regretted. Neither did I turn my back on "difficult" teenagers. I counselled who I could outside classroom hours and in one notable case had a heart-to-heart talk with one boy who, years later contacted me through Friends Reunited and told me how I helped turn his life round, prevented him from a life of crime. He`s now happily married with children and doing a worthwhile job and enjoying life. He claims it is all down to me sitting him down and talking him through his two potential paths in life: the road to jail or the road to being a worthy citizen. I counselled him at my home - how many teachers dare even risk having students for a heart-to-heart in their home? Until society accepts that committed teachers can make a difference, can help a child overcome horrendous home circumstances by showing that they truly care about all their pupils. Of course, not all teachers are up to this. There were in my time those who solely tried to teach their subject and had no interest in their students personalities and problems. Get in, get through the lesson and get to the next lesson. Perhaps not surprisingly, they had more trouble with class control than I did and were not respected. My success, as such, came from being very firm with a new class, then easing off and, I hope, having fun with my children as we got to know each other better and show respect on both sides of the teacher`s desk. I hope young teachers are better prepared for the skills needed for effective teaching these days. But their must still be discipline and orderliness for effective teaching and learning to take place. Today, I would, if I resorted some of the physical restraints I exercised to get certain "bolshy" teenagers back on track when they become insultingly moody should be sacked, or end up in court or even jailed. Please let`s get effective discipline from which springs effective teaching and learning back into our schools. Perhaps then we would have fewer children referred to special units which, to me, reinforce the children`s perception that they`re lesser members of society. I am close to one young woman, successfully married with children who, only now, in her thirties, has, because of being condemned to a referral unit for teenage disruptiveness caused by the splitting up of mother and father, and the girl blaming herslef for that breakup, and losing faith in adults, is now after long sessions with me, returning to her studies and hopes at least to become a teaching assistant, and ideally a qualified teacher. The mountain she faces is horrendously uphill as she left school with no qualifications whatsoever, but is taking and passing NVQs - whatever they are. You see the psycholgist I was and in which I received distinctions during my teacher training nver left me. I used my knowledge to manipulate where necessary (Let no psychologist claim they never manipulate. They may not like the word but their job is to effect change through a partnership and that, to me involves manipulation by both parties). The difference from teaching is that psychologists work in one to one or also these days in group therapy sessions but never with classes of twenty to thirty plus. I used my psycholgoy to get teenagers to respond to me first through stictness, then through effecting mutual respect, moments of fun and eventually an orderly but enjoyable atmosphere. If physical, painful contact proved the only answer I reluctantly resorted to it. I still believe it less painful than employing psychological harm through verbally belittling a child in front of his/her peers. If someone in my registration form but not actually taught by me was reported to me for persistent disruption then I would take over and pull no punches (excuse the pun) in a verbal dressing down, not mincing words. I once reduced a six-footer to tears, for which I hated myself, but he behaved from then on until he left school. He didn`t get his own back by punching me on his last day, but gave me a warm grin and a wave goodbye. Conversely, when some youngsters with appalling home backgrounds were referred to me because the teachers could not get them to do any work through frustration on the part of the child, I would calm the student down, show them how to cope with the task they seemed to be failing at and give them a coping mechanism to get through at least that lesson, get them to laugh at themself and at me and send them back to class. An effective teacher needs a battery of approaches and must accept each child as an individual.
I note, at the end of the programme the narrator said we have not heard the last of corporal punishment in the Twentieth First Century. I aver it could and should still have a limited place in our schools.