Maintaining discipline is a difficult task, and not everyone can cope with this task. A bunch of restless children can drive anyone crazy and destroy a school in a matter of minutes. That is why punishments were invented, and today we will talk about the most terrible ones.
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China
In China, negligent students were punished by beating their hands with a bamboo rod. This only seems harmless if you don’t know how many times schoolchildren received it... The most interesting thing is that parents only supported this method of raising children. It was canceled only 50 years ago.
Russia
In Russia, rods were used to beat the truth into children. In theological seminaries, people could be beaten with rods for excessive zeal in eating or for not knowing the names of all 12 apostles.
This is what they looked like, by the way. Rods are twigs soaked in water for elasticity. They hit hard and left marks.
Great Britain
In the UK, schoolchildren were put on peas. Yes, this is where this tradition came from and quickly reached us; we also practiced such punishment. They stood on the scattered peas with their bare knees. Believe me, it doesn’t hurt only the first 30 seconds, and Russian schoolchildren sometimes stood on peas for 4 hours. Corporal punishment was abolished only in 1986.
Brazil
Children in Brazil are banned from playing football. No matter how simple it may seem to us, for any Brazilian child this is like death, because everyone plays football even during recess!
Liberia
In Liberia, children are still punished with the whip. Recently, Liberian President Charles Taylor personally gave his 13-year-old daughter 10 lashes for indiscipline.
Japan
Those who are experienced in torture are the Japanese. They had many punishments, but these two were the most brutal: standing with porcelain cup on your head, straightening one leg at a right angle to your body and lie on two stools, holding onto them only with your palms and toes, that is, in fact, it turns out - between the stools.
In addition, there are no cleaners in Japanese schools; punished students clean there.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, if you are two minutes late, you will have to read the Quran for 8 hours.
Namibia
Despite the prohibitions, in Namibia, offending students have to stand under a hornet's nest.
Scotland
A standard Scottish school belt is made from thick, tough leather by special order from educational authorities. They usually use it folded in half, and they say it’s better not to try this on yourself.
Nepal
Nepal. The most terrible punishment there is when a boy is dressed in a woman’s dress and, depending on the degree of offense, is forced to wear it for from one to 5 days. In fact, girls in Nepal are not sent to school; they are considered purely a burden and are fed very poorly. The boys cannot stand such a diet and begin to ask for forgiveness around the second day.
The topic of school punishment is a very old one. Many artists wrote their paintings about this, which allows us to conclude that this has worried people at all times.
But despite the progress, even now teachers allow themselves to raise their hands against students and punish them in sophisticated ways.
For being late, this teacher made him hold a chair over his head until “he hurt his empty head”
But this teacher completely lost his composure and could barely restrain himself. A high school student annoyed him by speaking out about his wife.
After a fair amount of digging on the Internet and contacting education workers, we learned that there are still plenty of monsters in the world and there are schools where punishment is much worse than our red paste.
Third World countries
So, Pakistan. Here your child will be required to read the Qur'an for about 8 hours a day, and that's just for being two minutes late to class! Moreover, eyewitnesses say that this rule is so strict that it applies to everyone, both teachers and children with a valid reason for being late.
What can we say about Africa, where the most severe punishments for the most common children's pranks and pranks are still alive. In Namibia, for example, the offender must stand under a tree with a wasp nest for several hours. This is especially true for girls who do not have the right to study at school and sometimes come to look at the boys. It’s called school too for me!
Liberia and Kenya are not far behind. There children are whipped for disobedience.
What about in civilized Europe?
And no matter how scary, even more developed countries corporal punishment is still present. Namely, Great Britain became famous for this. In 2011, the Conservative Party of the government lifted the ban on this very corporal punishment in school, citing the fact that the younger generation had become completely unruly and began to live on the Internet.But in France, for example, a student may get caught because of his parents, who are late to pick up their child from school. They even introduced fines for those who were late picking up their child more than twice. In this case, the baby receives bad behavior.
Germany is more loyal to its new generation. But there is also punishment, which students fear like fire. Summer school. If you have not reached the number of hours of visits, no matter for what reasons, whether illness or something more serious, the school obliges you to attend a special summer school for three weeks every day instead of vacation. educational institution. Naturally, parents pay for this education.
The rest of the world
The Korean education system includes two types of punishment. Individual and group. The first is used in case of minor errors, for unfinished homework or tactless behavior during the lesson. And it consists of hitting the different parts bodies. Teachers who have attended non-traditional Korean lessons claim that the blows are not strong, and after such punishment no one ever cries or complains. Group punishment is when everyone takes responsibility for the mistake of one. Most often, the entire class is forced to stand and hold their hands in the air. Not an easy task, I want to tell you.For many centuries, Brazilian teachers have used corporal punishment as the most effective punishment for spoiled people. But now the education system in Brazil is humane, and the worst punishment for a misbehavior is a ban on playing football during breaks.
But the Japanese became famous for their sophistication in punishing the future generation. A schoolchild who did not pay attention in class was previously forced to stand with a bowl on his head and keep his leg at right angles to the ground. Now the Japanese regret the past stage and give their children maximum opportunities for personal growth.
Glorious America cannot be ignored.
It was Alabama that thundered throughout the world when the mother of seven-year-old boy Jonathan Curtis filed a police report about the beating of her son by a teacher. According to the boy, he received numerous injuries and bruises because he looked into the classroom without permission! Moreover, during the investigation of the incident, the director of Jonathan’s school stated that the teacher was right and this punishment was absolutely fair.
But in most cases, as in USA and neighboring Canada, the heaviest punishment is considered to be a ban on a student attending an educational institution for some time. Moreover, if a child is punished because of disobedience during a lesson, parents are obliged to take their offspring to a psychotherapist at this time in order to understand the reasons for such behavior.
As for Russia and Ukraine, in our country, of course, such absurd methods of education are not widespread, but there are isolated cases of strange, and sometimes cruel punishment children.
For example, in many domestic schools, students are left without breaks or even answers in class simply because their parents did not sign the teacher’s remark or memo. Once I personally observed a picture of how an experienced 50-year-old teacher with extensive work experience left a second-grader in the office during a walk, only because the mother did not sign the footnote with the grades. And what kind of upbringing is this, you ask?
But the Buchan school No. 5 in the Kyiv region became known throughout the country for such a method of punishment as the “board of shame.” Anyone who was late or came out of uniform was immediately photographed on the spot and posted on a board with offensive inscriptions. This innovation was the initiative of the school director, but, thank God, it did not catch on.
These are the schools of the 21st century. Does anyone really need to be reminded that every child is a bright individual with precious and fragile inner world? And we, adults, are obliged to protect, develop, love and invest in every little person everything good and right that we can give. And if suddenly you encounter a cruel and absurd attitude towards children from a school or parents, do not remain silent! Tell us about it, save a life that has just begun!
I saved those other passion-faces, namely, a story about corporal punishment at school and at home in England in the 19th century. If you are interested, next time I will write directly about the “English vice”, that is, about sadomasochism in the 19th century. But in the case of the punishments described here, there was no trace of voluntariness. Therefore, all this is simply terrible (and I still decided not to cite the most terrible cases, even I was shocked).
So...
The study of corporal punishment in 19th century England is somewhat reminiscent of that notorious hospital temperature. If in some families the children were torn like sidorov goats, then in others they didn’t even lay a finger on them. Moreover, when analyzing Victorians' memories of childhood corporal punishment, one must separate the wheat from the chaff. Not all sources that talk about corporal punishment in color and with gusto are reliable. Some are just the fruit of erotic fantasies that bloomed and fragrant in the 19th century (as, indeed, now). This is exactly the kind of work with sources that Ian Gibson did. The fruit of his many years of analysis of memoirs, newspaper articles, legal documents and erotic literature was the book “The English Vice” (English Vice), some chapters of which I will briefly retell here. Although the author's conclusions, especially regarding the etiology of sadomasochism, may seem controversial, his historiography of corporal punishment in the 19th century is quite convincing.
When justifying the use of corporal punishment against children and criminals, the British of the 19th century often referred to the Bible. Of course, not for those episodes where Christ preached love for one’s neighbor and asked the apostles to let children come to him. The proponents of spanking liked the Proverbs of Solomon much more. Among other things, it contains the following maxims:
He who spares his rod hates his son; and whoever loves punishes him from childhood. (23:24)
Punish your son while there is hope, and do not be indignant at his cry. (19:18)
Do not leave the young man unpunished: if you punish him with a rod, he will not die; you will punish him with a rod and save his soul from the underworld. (23: 13 - 14)
Stupidity has become attached to the young man's heart, but the rod of correction will remove it from him. (22:15).
All arguments that the parables of Solomon should not be taken so literally, and that the rod mentioned there is perhaps some kind of metaphorical rod, and not a bunch of rods, were ignored by supporters of corporal punishment. For example, in 1904, Vice Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald entered into a controversy with playwright George Bernard Shaw, a fierce opponent of corporal punishment. The bone of contention was punishment in the navy. The admiral, as usual, bombarded Shaw with quotes from Solomon. To this, Shaw replied that he had thoroughly studied the biography of the sage, as well as the relationships in his family. The picture was sad: towards the end of his life, Solomon himself fell into idolatry, and his well-flogged son was never able to preserve his father’s lands. According to the show, Solomon's example is precisely the best argument against putting his principles into practice.
In addition to Proverbs, supporters of spanking had another favorite saying - “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Few people knew where she even came from. It was believed that it came from somewhere in the Bible. A lot of things are written there. Surely this saying has gotten around too. Somewhere. In fact, this is a quote from Samuel Butler's satirical poem Hudibras, published in 1664. In one episode, a lady demands a knight to accept a spanking as a test of his love. In principle, there is nothing strange in this; the ladies never mocked the knights. But the scene itself is quite piquant. After persuasion, the lady tells the knight the following: “Love is a boy, by poets styled / Then spare the rod and spoil the child” (Love is a boy, created by poets / If you spare the rod, you will spoil the child). In this context, the mention of flogging is more likely associated with erotic games and, probably, with a parody of religious flagellants. At least the idea itself is presented in a mocking manner. Who would have thought that stern, educated men would quote these humorous verses?
At home these gentlemen did not hesitate to follow Solomon's instructions as they understood them. Moreover, while in working-class families parents could simply attack a child with their fists, children from the middle class were decorously flogged with rods. Canes, hairbrushes, slippers, and so on could be used as instruments of punishment, depending on parental ingenuity. Children often suffered from nannies and governesses. Not in every house were governesses allowed to beat their pupils - some in such cases called on their fathers for help - but where they were allowed, they could be truly fierce. For example, a certain Lady Anne Hill recalled her first nanny this way: “One of my brothers still remembers how she put me on her lap when I was still wearing a long shirt (then I was at most 8 months old) and with all her strength hit me on the bottom with a hairbrush. This continued as I got older." Lord Curzon's nanny was a real sadist: she once ordered the boy to write a letter to the butler asking him to prepare a rod for him, and then asked the butler to read this letter in front of all the servants in the servants' room.
The real scandal involving the cruel governess broke out in 1889. In English newspapers there were often advertisements like “A bachelor with two sons is looking for a strict governess who does not disdain spanking” and further in the same cheerful spirit. For the most part, this is how sadomasochists had fun in an era when there were no chat rooms or forums of a specific focus. Imagine the surprise of Times readers when one of these advertisements turned out to be genuine!
A certain Mrs. Walter from Clifton offered her services in raising and training unruly girls. She also offered brochures on the education of young people, at a shilling apiece. The editor of the Times newspaper, where the ad was published, persuaded his friend to contact the mysterious Mrs. Walter. It was interesting to find out exactly how she educates young people. A resourceful lady wrote that her young daughter was completely out of control and asked for advice. The teacher took the bait. Having communicated your full name- Mrs. Walter Smith - she offered to take the girl to her school for 100 pounds a year and treat her properly there. Moreover, she was ready to show letters of recommendation from the clergy, aristocrats, and high military officials. Along with the answer, Mrs. Smith also sent a brochure in which she described her method of influencing uncontrollable girls. Moreover, she described so colorfully that in the absence of other income, she could write sadomasochistic novels and rake in money with a shovel. What a pity that this particular idea did not knock on her mind!
The journalist decided to meet her in person. During the interview, Mrs. Smith - a tall and strong lady - said that there were twenty-year-old girls in her academy, and a couple of weeks ago she gave one of them 15 blows with a rod. If necessary, the teacher could come to the house. For example, to those individuals who needed a dose of English education, and the echidna mothers could not organize a spanking for them on their own. A sort of Terminator lady. Being a punctual lady, she entered all her meetings in notebook. She charged 2 guineas per appointment. Apparently, among her clients there were many real masochists.
As soon as Mrs. Smith's interview was published, a flood of letters poured into the editor. The loudest screams were those ladies and gentlemen whom the good governess mentioned among her guarantors. It turned out that Mrs. Smith was the widow of a pastor, the former headmaster of All Saints School in Clifton (as for spanking, her husband probably showed her a master class more than once). After his death, Mrs. Smith decided to open a school for girls and asked her friends for letters of recommendation. They happily agreed. Then everyone as one assured that they did not know and did not know about Mrs. Smith’s educational methods. The grocer Mrs. Clapp, who, judging by the brochure, supplied her with rods, latex suits, gags, and fluffy pink handcuffs, disowned her. Thus, although many Englishmen supported flogging, no one wanted to get involved with such a scandalous and frankly indecent story. And spanking girls was not treated with the same enthusiasm as spanking boys.
Corporal punishment was common both at home and in schools. It is not easy to find a medieval engraving depicting a school where the teacher did not hold an armful of rods in his hands. It seems that the entire educational process boiled down to spanking. In the 19th century, things were not much better. The main arguments in favor of school spanking were that:
1) Solomon bequeathed to us
2) schoolchildren were always beaten and nothing, so many generations of gentlemen have grown up
3) we have such a good tradition, and we, the British, love traditions
4) I also got bullied at school and it’s okay, I sit in the House of Lords
5) if there are 600 boys in a school, then you can’t have a heart-to-heart talk with everyone - it’s easier to tear one out so that others are afraid
6) with boys it’s generally impossible
7) what do you propose, humanists-pacifists-socialists? A? Well, shut up then!
Students from elite educational institutions were beaten much harder and more often than those who attended school in their home village. A special case was workhouses and reform schools for young offenders, where conditions were absolutely terrible. Commissions inspecting such institutions, as well as prison schools, mentioned various abuses, such as overly heavy canes, as well as thorn rods.
Despite the assurances of pornographers, girls in English schools of the 19th century were spanked much less often than boys. At least this applies to girls from the middle class and above. The situation was somewhat different in schools for the poor and orphanages. According to a report from 1896, reform schools for girls used rods, canes, and thongs. For the most part, girls were beaten on the arms or shoulders; only in some cases were the pupils' pantaloons removed. I remember an episode from Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre”:
“Burns immediately left the class and went to the closet where the books were kept and from where she came out half a minute later, holding a bunch of rods in her hands. She handed this instrument of punishment to Miss Scatcherd with a respectful curtsey, then calmly, without waiting for orders, took off her apron, and the teacher struck her painfully with the rod several times on her bare neck. Not a single tear appeared in Burns's eyes, and although I was forced to put down my sewing at the sight of her, my fingers trembling with a feeling of helpless and bitter anger, her face retained its usual expression of gentle thoughtfulness.
- Stubborn girl! - exclaimed Miss Scatcherd. - Apparently, nothing can fix you! Slob! Take away the rods!
Burns obediently followed the order. When she came out of the closet again, I looked at her closely: she was hiding a handkerchief in her pocket, and on her thin cheek there was a trace of an erased tear.”
One of the most prestigious schools in England, if not the most prestigious, in the 19th century was Eton, a boarding school for boys founded in the 15th century. Eton College epitomized the harsh English upbringing. Depending on the amount of knowledge, students were assigned to the Junior or Senior Division (Lower/Upper School). If the boys previously studied with a tutor or went through preparatory school, they ended up in the Senior Department. The Junior School usually enrolled students who had not yet reached 12. Sometimes it happened that an adult boy ended up in the Junior Department, which was especially humiliating. Upon entering college, the student fell under the tutelage of a tutor, in whose apartment he lived and under whose supervision he studied. The mentor was one of the teachers at the college and supervised an average of 40 students. Parents resolved the issue of payment directly with the mentor.
Since the mentor actually acted as a guardian in relation to the student, he also had the right to punish him. To carry out punishments, teachers turned to older students for help. So, in the 1840s, there were only 17 teachers for 700 students at Eton, so prefects were simply necessary. Thus, the older students could officially beat the younger ones. Naturally, the matter was not limited to sanctioned floggings; hazing also took place. One of the Eton graduates later recalled how a senior student once began to beat his friend right during dinner, hitting him in the face and head, while the rest of the senior students continued to eat as if nothing had happened. There were a great many such incidents.
In addition, there was a quasi-feudal system, the so-called fagging. A student from the lower grades entered into the service of a senior student - he brought him breakfast and tea, lit the fireplace and, if necessary, could run to the tobacco shop, although such escapades were punishable by severe flogging. Ideally, this relationship resembled that of a lord and a vassal. In exchange for services, the high school student had to protect his subordinate. But no one has abolished childhood cruelty, so older students very often took out their grievances on the younger ones. Moreover, quite a few grievances accumulated. Life at Eton was not easy even for high school students. Even 18- to 20-year-old boys, in fact, young men, tomorrow's graduates, could be flogged. For them, the punishment was especially humiliating given its public nature.
How did corporal punishment work at Eton? If a teacher complained about one of the students to the director of the college or the head of the Junior Department, depending on the student’s department, the name of the offender was included in a special list. At the appointed hour, the student was called for a spanking. Each department had a spanking block (among the students it was considered chic to steal it, as well as the rod, and hide it somewhere). The unfortunate man knelt down near the log and leaned over it. At Eton they always spanked my bare buttocks, so I had to take off my trousers too. Two students stood near the person being punished, turned his shirt up and held him during the spanking. In other words, punishments at Eton were ritualized, which turned on masochists like Swinburne like valerian to a cat.
As for the Eton rods, they struck fear into the hearts of students. They resembled a broom with a meter-long handle and a bunch of thick rods at the end. The director's servant prepared the rods, bringing a whole dozen to school every morning. Sometimes he had to replenish his supply during the day. It’s scary to think how many trees were tormented by this. For ordinary offenses, the student received 6 strokes; for more serious offenses, their number increased. Depending on the force of the blow, blood could appear on the skin, and the marks from the flogging did not go away for weeks. The rod was the symbol of Eton, but in 1911 Headmaster Lyttelton committed sacrilege - he abolished the rod in the Senior Division, replacing it with a cane. Former Eton students were horrified and vying with each other to claim that education would now go down the drain. They simply could not imagine their own school without rods!
Executions in the Senior Division were carried out in the director's office, also known as the library. However, both in the Junior and Senior Divisions, executions were public. Any of the students could attend them. This, in fact, was the effect of the flogging - to scare as many people as possible in one fell swoop. Another thing is that Etonians often came to floggings as if it were a show, rather to gloat than to grumble. However, the students, who had never been whipped at home, were shocked by such a spectacle. But they soon got used to it. Judging by the memoirs of graduates, over time they ceased to be afraid or even ashamed of spanking. To bear it without shouting was a kind of bravado.
When sending their sons to Eton, parents knew full well that their offspring could not avoid being spanked. Many were Eton graduates themselves and believed that the rod only benefited them. In this regard, the incident of Mr. Morgan Thomas from Sussex in the 1850s is interesting. When his Eton son turned 14, Mr Thomas declared that from now on he should not be flogged. At his age, this punishment is too humiliating. He told his son this privately; the college administration knew nothing about these instructions. Young Thomas lasted four years without serious violations. But when he turned 18, the young man was suspected of smoking and sentenced to corporal punishment. It was then that he revealed to his mentor that his father had strictly forbidden him to obey the Eton rules in this case. The director did not write to the student's father - he simply expelled young Thomas for disobedience. Mr Thomas then launched a press campaign to abolish corporal punishment at Eton. After all, according to an act of parliament of 1847, it was forbidden to flog criminals over 14 years of age (throughout the 19th century, these rules changed, becoming softer and harsher). But if the law spared the fillets of young offenders, then why was it possible to flog 18-year-old gentlemen for such minor offenses? Unfortunately, the angry father never achieved anything.
Other scandals involving school violence have erupted from time to time. For example, in 1854, a head boy at Harrow School gave another student 31 strokes of his cane, causing the boy to require medical attention. This incident was trumpeted in The Times, but the scandal did not entail any consequences. The school's principal, Dr. Charles Vaughan, was an ardent supporter of spanking, and former students recalled school punishments with trepidation. It was not until 1859, after 15 years in this position, that he was finally asked to resign. Not because of savage education methods, but because Vaughan showed excessive attention to some students. The director's pederasty was the last straw. In 1874, Reverend Moss, headmaster of Shrewsberry School, gave a student 88 lashes with a rod. According to a doctor who examined the boy 10 days after the incident, his body was still covered with scars. The most incredible thing is that the Times readers learned about the director’s cruelty from his own letter! Frustrated, Moss wrote to the newspaper, complaining that the boy's father had spread the word about the punishment to the entire neighborhood. It's like something serious happened! It's a common thing. Of course, the director was not removed from his position, they were only asked to continue to take public opinion into account and not punish students so harshly.
Christ's Hospital boarding school in London was a real hell on earth. After 12-year-old student William Gibbs hanged himself in 1877, unable to withstand the bullying, the school came to the attention of Parliament. It turned out that from eight in the evening to eight in the morning, none of the the teachers did not look after the pupils. Power was concentrated in the hands of the elders, i.e. the older students, and they did what they wanted. William Gibbs had a conflict with one of the elders. The boy had already run away from school, but he was returned and brutally whipped. And when the second escape was unsuccessful, William preferred suicide to another flogging. The doctor’s verdict was “suicide in a state of temporary insanity.” The rules at school remained the same.
Finally, I would like to quote a poignant passage from the memoirs of George Orwell. At the age of 8 he entered St. Cyprian's Preparatory School. The task preparatory schools was to train boys to enter prestigious educational institutions, including Eton. Part of this training included regular corporal punishment. In the excerpt below, little George was called to the headmaster to be whipped for a serious offense - he wet the bed in his sleep.
« When I arrived, Flip was doing something at a long polished table in the hallway of the office. Her searching eyes examined me carefully. Mr. Wilkes, nicknamed Sambo, was waiting for me in the office. Sambo was a stooped, clumsy man, small but waddling, round-faced, looking like a huge baby, usually in a good mood. Of course, he already knew why I came to him, and had already taken a horseman’s whip with a bone handle from the closet, but part of the punishment was to loudly announce my offense. When I did this, he gave me a short but pompous lecture, after which he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, bent me over, and began to beat me with a rider's whip. It was his habit to continue reading the notation while beating; I remembered the words “you dirty boy”, spoken in time with the beats. It didn’t hurt me (probably he didn’t hit me very hard, since it was the first time), and I left the office feeling much better. The fact that I didn't feel any pain after the spanking was in a sense a victory, erasing some of the shame of wetting the bed. Perhaps, inadvertently, I even allowed myself to smile. Several younger boys were gathered in the corridor in front of the hallway door.
- Well, how did you get spanked?
“It didn’t even hurt,” I answered proudly.
Flip heard everything. Immediately I heard her scream addressed to me.
- Well, come here! Immediately! What you said?
“I said it didn’t hurt,” I stammered.
- How dare you say that! Do you think this is decent? APPEAR INTO YOUR OFFICE AGAIN.
This time Sambo really came at me. The spanking continued for an amazingly, terribly long time - about five minutes - and ended with the rider's whip breaking and the bone handle flying across the room.
- You see what you forced me to do! - he told me angrily, picking up the broken whip.
I fell into a chair, whimpering pitifully. I remember this was the only time in my entire childhood when beating brought me to tears, and even now I was not crying because of pain. And this time it didn’t hurt me particularly. Fear and shame had an analgesic effect. I cried partly because it was expected of me, partly out of sincere repentance, and partly out of a deep bitterness that is difficult to describe in words, but which is inherent in childhood: a feeling of abandoned loneliness and helplessness, a feeling of being not just in a hostile world, but in a world of good and evil with rules that are impossible to follow.”
Corporal punishment was banned in English state schools, as well as in private schools receiving government subsidies, in 1987. In the remaining private schools, corporal punishment was abolished even later - in 1999 in England and Wales, in 2000 in Scotland, and in 2003 in Northern Ireland. In some US states, corporal punishment is still allowed in schools.
Cupid's punishment is a common subject in painting. Actually, the saying Spare the rod and spoil the child is most likely associated with this plot.
Punishment at school 
Painting by the German artist Hansenklever “First Day at School” - the boy found himself, as they say, in the midst of fun. 
Very often in newspapers of the 19th century you can find descriptions of vice in boarding houses for girls. Judging by the shocked reviews of other readers, most of these stories are a figment of fantasy. But pornographers were inspired by these fantasies. 
Whipping bench for juvenile offenders at Clerkenwell Prison 
Deck and rod at Eton 
Eton rod 
Eton rods (left) compared to the common school rods. What can I say? The offspring of wealthy families received a higher quality, more English education. 
Etonian in the 20th century 
In connection with the worldwide campaign to ban corporal punishment of children, their comparative historical analysis becomes particularly relevant. The article traces the historical dynamics of relevant practices and attitudes towards them in Russia.
Keywords: corporal punishment, child abuse, discipline, children's rights.
The global campaign for prohibiting the corporal punishment of children provides an important motivation for studying this topic in terms of a comparative historical analysis. In this article, the historical dynamics of respective practices and attitudes to them in Russia are traced.
Keywords: corporal punishment, violence against children, discipline, children’s rights.
Any corporal punishment of children is a violation of their fundamental rights to human dignity and physical integrity. The fact that this corporal punishment remains legal in a number of states violates children's fundamental right to the same legal protections as adults. In European societies it is forbidden to hit people, and children are people. The social and legal acceptability of corporal punishment of children must end.
The Council of Europe and the UN are seeking a complete ban on corporal punishment of children, considering it not a form of educational influence, but a violation of the rights of the child and physical violence against him. This topic is widely discussed in Russia. According to the State Duma Committee on Women, Family and Youth Affairs (2001), in Russia about 2 million children under the age of 14 are beaten in the family every year. More than 50 thousand of these children run away from home. Moreover, boys are beaten three times more often than girls. Two thirds of those beaten are preschoolers. 10% of children brutally beaten and hospitalized die.
According to surveys by human rights organizations, about 60% of children experience violence in the family, and 30% in schools. Criminal statistics reflect only 5-10% of the real number of beatings (Getmansky, Konygina 2004). According to the state report “On the Situation of Children in the Russian Federation,” about 50 thousand crimes against minors were registered in 2004, and more than 2,000 children die annually as a result of murder and from grievous bodily harm. According to various authors, the prevalence of child abuse cases ranges from 3% to 30% (Volkova 2008). According to President D. A. Medvedev (“Kommersant” No. 46 (4101) dated March 17, 2009), in 2008, 126 thousand children became victims of violence in Russia, of which 1914 children died, 12.5 thousand are wanted. Another 760 thousand children living in socially dangerous conditions are considered potential victims of violence. The problem, according to the president, “goes beyond the scope of law enforcement itself.”
Corporal punishment is part of this problem. K. Grigoriev (2006) provides the following figures: the level of use of physical punishment in Russian families ranges from 50 to 95%, at least 5% of children constantly experience physical abuse - slaps, pokes, slaps on the head. How justified are these scary statistics?
The attitude towards corporal punishment is not only a socio-pedagogical problem, but also a religious and philosophical one. Some ancient civilizations and religions, including Judaism and Christianity, considered harsh, including physical, punishment of children not only useful, but also obligatory. Other religions did not require this, but children were practically beaten everywhere. “For educational purposes” or simply because children are natural victims on whom adults take out their own irritation.
Terminological questions immediately arise, in particular the relationship between the concepts of “punishment” and “violence”. The most common household equivalent of corporal (physical) punishment is Russian word“spanking” or English “spanking”. But spanking (with a belt, whip, or some other object) is different from spanking (with a bare hand), while spanking includes both meanings.
Approval or condemnation of corporal punishment is often made dependent on the degree of its cruelty (presence of scars, blood, etc.) or on who carries it out: spanking by a teacher is unacceptable violence, and spanking by parents is a manifestation of care. In both cases, not only motives matter characters, but also the social attitudes and values of numerous third parties, including the notorious “Princess Marya Aleksevna.”
No psychological and sociological surveys and surveys will give us reliable knowledge about the extent of prevalence, much less about the short- and long-term consequences of corporal punishment without detailed, including the gender aspect, anthropology and history of everyday life. Family discipline and punishment of children are inextricably linked with the normative order accepted in a given society and the image of a person as an individual (Kohn 2003).
In Russia, this topic is poorly studied, not because corporal punishment did not exist here or was not discussed. Vice versa! Even after the abolition of serfdom in Russia, not only children, but also many categories of the adult population were flogged. This is one of the most acute socio-political problems of the Russian nineteenth century, and a huge pre-revolutionary scientific literature is devoted to it (Zhbankov, Yakovenko 1899; Evreinov 1994, etc.). However, in Soviet times, after corporal punishment in school was formally prohibited, the topic was considered theoretically exhausted and was actually closed. In reputable international electronic databases on corporal punishment (for example, www.corpun.com), Russia is either completely absent or represented by random anecdotes. Meanwhile, there are no fewer sources here than in the West, and they are just as diverse, one-sided and contradictory.
Firstly, these are pedagogical treatises and religious and moral instructions, like necessary raise children. Secondly, general work on the history of school, family and education. Thirdly, numerous diaries, memoirs and childhood memories. Fourthly, fiction about childhood, such as “Essays on Bursa” or “Childhood Themes”, which is usually based on the personal memories of the authors, edited and supplemented with fantasies (memoirists do the same). Fifthly, official documents, instructions, court cases and departmental reports, starting with the famous report compiled on the instructions of the trustee of the educational district, the famous surgeon N.I. Pirogov (1810-1881), and ending with modern government reports on the situation of childhood in Russia. Sixth, mass representative public opinion polls that appeared in the 1990s specifically devoted to this topic. This is an “all-Union” poll by VTsIOM in 1992 (immediately after the liquidation of the USSR); national surveys by the Levada Center in 2000 and 2004; national surveys by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) in 2004 and 2008; national survey of the Research Center of the SuperJob.ru portal in 2008; survey conducted in 2009 by the Center for Operational and Applied Research of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences commissioned by the Foundation for Support of Children in Difficulty life situation. Plus numerous regional and thematic surveys.
Professional survey data seems more reliable than departmental statistics and personal narratives. Alas! The samples and questions across studies are not entirely comparable. In one case, respondents are asked about “children” in general, in another - about schoolchildren, in the third - about teenagers over 13-14 years old. Some questionnaires are about family, others about school. Some are interested in the attitudes and opinions of respondents, others - in their own past experiences. The types of corporal punishment and their socio-pedagogical context are not always distinguished: who has the right or obligation to carry out these punishments? “Physically punish” and “flog” are not exactly the same thing. As a rule, there are no systematic cross-correlations with gender, age, cohort and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The gender aspect is especially poorly represented: who (fathers or mothers) and whom (boys or girls) is spanked more often and/or considers it fair and useful usually remains unclear.
Another source that has appeared in recent years is a variety of Internet sites entirely dedicated to spanking. Their range is very wide: from more or less explicit pornography to a completely correct and serious exchange of personal experiences and opinions of members of a fairly large law-abiding BDSM community. The rules of the forum of the Crime and Punishment club prohibit “any manifestations of national, racial, political or religious hatred, humiliation of national dignity, propaganda of exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of persons based on their attitude to religion, national, territorial, state or racial affiliation... Publication of photos -, video, audio recordings of punishments of real children and child pornography are prohibited in all sections of the forum. Disclosure of a link and a request for publication (search) is equivalent to publication. Exceptions include scenes from films that are not classified as “adults only” and photographs published in the public press.”
Since this communication is anonymous, it is quite difficult to establish the cohort and other characteristics of the interlocutors and to distinguish a story about actually lived personal experience from erotic fantasies. Nevertheless, this is an important source of information, not inferior in value to memoirs and fiction. In this article, I quote texts that seem authentic to me, without making links to specific sites, in order to avoid accusations of promoting sadomasochism and “bad” sites and, at the same time, not to attract the attention of law enforcement agencies to marginal sexual subcultures that have an undeniable right to exist.
Historical origins
In pre-revolutionary Russia, corporal punishment has long been widespread and very cruel. The serfdom and autocracy made it possible to flog and even beat to death not only criminals and children, but also adult men and women, and neither the punishers nor the victims saw anything unnatural or humiliating in this. Only the following were discussed: a) the question of permissible degree of cruelty, understood as “rigor”, and b) class privileges. Old Russian law made practically no class distinctions in this regard (Schrader 2002). Both the highest clergy and secular officials holding high government positions were subjected to “trade execution” (public flogging) and beatings with batogs; The era of Peter the Great was especially distinguished by such “sub-basic” equality of classes. Privileged social groups those who could not be flogged because they had class dignity And self-worth, appear in Russia only at the end of the 18th century. The charter issued to the nobility dated April 21, 1785 decreed that “corporal punishment shall not affect the noble.” In the same year, this exemption was extended to merchants of the first two guilds and eminent citizens, and in 1796 to clergy.
Benefits did not apply to children, regardless of their origin. Disenfranchised and themselves repeatedly flogged, the teachers took particular pleasure in taking out their rage on defenseless children. Bible rules: “Whoever spares his rod hates his son; and whoever loves punishes him from childhood”; “Do not leave the young man unpunished; if you punish him with a rod, he will not die”; “The rod and reproof give wisdom; but a child left in neglect brings shame to his mother” (Proverbs of Solomon 13:24, 23:13, 29:15) - were very popular in ancient Russian pedagogy. The “Izbornik” of 1076 teaches that a child needs to be early age“tame”, break his will, and “The Tale of Akira the Wise” (12th century) calls: “... do not refrain from beating your son” (quoted from: Dolgov 2006). The pedagogy of “crushing the ribs” is described in detail in “Domostroy” (1990: 134-136), a textbook on family life, written by Ivan the Terrible’s confessor, Archpriest Sylvester: “Punish your son in his youth, and he will calm you down in your old age. And do not feel sorry for the baby bey: if you punish him with a rod, he will not die, but will be healthier, for by executing his body, you are delivering his soul from death. If you have a daughter, and direct your severity towards her, you will save her from bodily troubles: you will not disgrace your face if your daughters walk in obedience<…>Don’t laugh in vain when playing with him (child. - I.K.): If you weaken in small things, you will suffer in sorrow in big things. So do not give him free rein in his youth, but walk along his ribs while he is growing, and then, having matured, he will not offend you and will not cause you annoyance and illness of the soul, and the ruin of the house, the destruction of property, and the reproach of neighbors, and the ridicule of enemies , and a penalty."
Severe authoritarian norms, with an emphasis on corporal punishment, are also shared by folk pedagogy. “To beat for a cause is to teach wisdom”; “They don’t beat you, they give you the mind”; “What kind of dad are you, if your baby is not afraid of you at all”; “love your child so that he doesn’t know it, otherwise from a young age you will learn to pull his beard and you won’t be happy when he grows up”; “To feel sorry for a son is to teach him to be a fool”; “An unpunished son is a dishonor to his father”; “Feed less, flog more - a good guy will grow up” (Kholodnaya 2004: 170-177; Morozov, Tolstoy 1995: 177-180).
Even in the era of Peter the Great, when the pedagogy of “crushing ribs” began to be criticized, rigor and severity remain the indisputable norm. Only in the 18th century did new trends appear in Russian pedagogy, and the change in attitude towards paternal authority was closely connected with a critical attitude towards state power. However, such views were not the rule, but the exception. As B. N. Mironov (2000) convincingly shows, the Russian family remained patriarchal and authoritarian in the 19th century. Assault and brutal violence are simply disguised as corporal punishment. This theme is widely represented in the satirical poetry of the 19th century, for example in V.S. Kurochkin: “Rods are branches from the tree of knowledge! // Punishment is an ideal!..” (Poets... 1955: 181).
Seminarians were especially mercilessly flogged, which was even expressed in their unique poetry (Pozdneev 2001). An artistically vivid and historically accurate description of seminary morals was given in “Essays on the Bursa” by N. G. Pomyalovsky (1835-1863), who, while studying at a church school, was himself punished 400 times and even asked himself the question: “Am I crossed or not yet crossed? »
In state gymnasiums and cadet corps everything looked more decent, but corporal punishment, sometimes extremely cruel, was practiced there too. In his notes “On Public Education,” A. S. Pushkin (1962: 358) wrote that “cadet corps, a breeding ground for officers of the Russian army, require physical transformation, great care for morals, which are in the most vile neglect,” and especially emphasized, that “the abolition of corporal punishment is necessary. The rules of honor and philanthropy must be instilled in students in advance. We must not forget that they will have the right to use rods and sticks over a soldier. Too cruel an upbringing makes them executioners, not bosses.”
In the first noble gymnasiums, rods were not used at all, but under Nicholas I they were restored. According to the above-mentioned data from Pirogov, who was a staunch opponent of rods, in the Kiev educational district in 1857-1859, from 13% to 27% of all students were subjected to rods. Much depended on the personal taste of the directors of the gymnasiums: in 11 gymnasiums, every seventh student was flogged during the year, and in the Zhytomyr gymnasium - almost every second gymnasium student! Cadet corps also look different (Kon 2009).
Most of the specific data describe physical punishment of boys. Judging by the memories of life in women's boarding schools and institutes for noble maidens, there were no such massive and cruel vices as in men's educational institutions. Girls were punished not so much physically as morally, humiliating their dignity (Institutes... 2001). As for family practices, they depended entirely on class norms and the individual characteristics of the parents. Where mothers were regularly beaten, daughters were even less immune in this regard.
In the mid-nineteenth century, an active campaign began against corporal punishment of children and adults; caning discipline was directly associated with serfdom. Pirogov’s activities were especially important in this regard. In the famous article “Should children be flogged?” (1858) Pirogov argued that the use of rods is anti-pedagogical, that corporal punishment destroys shame in a child, corrupts children and should be abolished. For official Russian society, this view was too bold, and this prompted Pirogov to show restraint. In a circular on the Kyiv educational district (1859), Pirogov, while fundamentally rejecting the rod, nevertheless considers it impossible to completely do without it and only advises using it in gymnasiums infrequently and in each individual case by resolution of the pedagogical council. N.A. Dobrolyubov sarcastically ridiculed this circular.
After the manifesto of February 19, 1861, which explained the very abolition of serfdom by “respect for the dignity of man and Christian love for one’s neighbors,” there seemed to be no place left for corporal punishment of adults; by decree of April 17, 1863 (the birthday of Alexander II), they were abolished. The main initiators of the new law were Prince N.A. Orlov, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, Senator D. A. Rovinsky, Chief Prosecutor of the Moscow departments of the Senate N. A. Butskovsky, Minister of War D. A. Milyutin. Referring in particular to Christian values, they argued that corporal punishment had a destructive effect on popular morality; they destroy every sense of honor in the person being punished; interfere with personal development; do not correspond either to human dignity, or to the spirit of the times, or to the successes of legislation; harden morals and eliminate the possibility of correction. However, the most authoritative hierarch of the Orthodox Church at that time, Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov) (1782-1867), did not support this point of view. In a note “On corporal punishment from a Christian point of view” dated September 13, 1861, Filaret argued that punishment in general, not excluding corporal punishment, does not destroy morality in people. “The criminal killed his sense of honor when he decided to commit a crime. It is too late to spare this feeling during punishment. Is the imprisonment of a guilty person less striking in his sense of honor than corporal punishment? Is it possible to recognize as correct such a judgment that a guilty person leaves from under the rod with dishonor, and from prison with honor? If any consciousness suppresses the guilty person, produces a decline in his spirit and thereby prevents him from rising to correction, then this is the consciousness of the crime committed, and not the punishment suffered” (Filaret 1887: 131-132).
The famous Russian historian, author of “The History of Corporal Punishment in Russia” N. Evreinov, Metropolitan Philaret’s passionate speech in defense of corporal punishment caused “bewilderment” and indignation, but Patriarch Alexy I completely identified with this position (Holiness... 2005).
Fortunately, Alexander II did not listen to Filaret. The new law abolished spitzrutens, whips, cats, and the imposition of brands, but as a concession, it temporarily retained rods, as well as class distinctions. Women were completely exempted from corporal punishment; clergy and their children; teachers public schools; those who have completed courses in district, agricultural, and especially in secondary and higher educational institutions; peasants holding public positions by election. The rod was reserved for peasants according to the verdicts of the volost courts; for convicts and exiled persons; as a temporary measure, pending the establishment of military prisons and military correctional companies, for soldiers and sailors punished by court.
The partial abolition of corporal punishment for adults also had a beneficial effect on schoolchildren. The Liberal School Charter of 1864 expanded the rights of teachers' councils and abolished corporal punishment. An important achievement was the emergence of private schools and gymnasiums, which were freer and more mobile than public ones. However, in many parish and rural schools, corporal punishment continued even into the early twentieth century, with scandals and court cases arising only in cases of extraordinary cruelty.
There were even more individual variations in family life. In some families, children were not spanked, but in others they were beaten regularly, and public opinion took this for granted. For example, out of 324 Moscow students surveyed by D.N. Zhbankov in 1908, 75 said that they were flogged at home, and other physical punishments were used on 85: long-term standing with bare knees in the corner on peas, blows to the face, whipping of the lower back with a wet rope or reins. Moreover, none of the respondents condemned their parents for being too strict, and five even said “that they should have been beaten harder” (Zhbankov 1908).
Soviet Russia
From the very beginning, official Soviet pedagogy considered corporal punishment of children, regardless of their gender and age, unacceptable and unacceptable. They were strictly prohibited in all types of educational institutions. Even during the war years, when the problems of school discipline, especially in boys' schools, became extremely acute, in the Instructions on the use of rewards and punishments in schools, developed by the Administration of Primary and Secondary Schools based on the order of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR No. 205 of March 21, 1944, " On strengthening discipline at school,” the ban was formulated unambiguously.
However, in practice these norms were not applied everywhere and not always. Although there was not and could not be a full-scale “ritual” spanking in Soviet schools, slaps, pinches and spanks were handed out by teachers and educators quite often (military instructors and physical education instructors were especially guilty of this). Much depended on the characteristics of the educational institution, the student’s social background and whether the parents were ready to protect him.
As for the family, almost everything remained in the hands of the parents. The Soviet government harshly persecuted any ideological deviations, for example, if a child expressed seditious Political Views or if religious parents did not allow him/her to join the Pioneers or Komsomol. Domestic violence was noticed much less often, only if it was too obvious, left noticeable marks on the child’s body, or if he or his neighbors complained somewhere. In such cases, guardianship authorities or the police intervened, but this intervention was motivated not by physical influences as such, but solely by their excessive cruelty.
In normative everyday pedagogy, the prohibition of corporal punishment was also sometimes questioned. Most often, they referred to the authority of A.S. Makarenko - a famous episode from the “Pedagogical Poem”, when Anton Semenovich hit his pupil Zadorov, and this only increased his authority among the colonists. It should be emphasized that Makarenko himself always very emotionally and sincerely rejected such an interpretation of his teaching experience.
However, everyday life did not take theories into account. There were no professional surveys on this topic in Soviet times, but when in the late 1980s journalist N.N. Filippov (1988a; 1988b), with the help of the pedagogical community, conducted an anonymous survey of seven and a half thousand children from 9 to 15 years old in 15 cities country, it turned out that 60% of parents used corporal punishment in raising their children; 86% of these punishments included flogging, 9% - standing in a corner (on knees - on peas, salt, bricks), 5% - blows to the face and head. Sometimes punishment for misconduct is difficult to distinguish from simple beatings and sexual violence (humiliating exposure, beating on the genitals, etc.).
It is typical that many children, both spanked and not, considered this style of education normal and intended to beat their own children in the future when they grew up.
Memoirs and fiction also paint a very mixed picture. In some families, children were never beaten, but in others, spanking was everyday, and many adults remember it without irritation, as something taken for granted.
Boys' Memories
The famous trainer V. M. Zapashny (1928-2007), who was born in a circus environment and performed in the arena from early childhood (started as an acrobat): “There was no time to walk. If you managed to escape and play Cossack robbers, it seemed like happiness. But even here you had to know when to stop: if you come home sweaty, you can’t avoid flogging... Because, firstly, you can’t get tired before work, and secondly, an artist can’t catch a cold” (Zapashny 2007).
Writer Yu. Petrov (born in 1939): “The most important memory is constant hunger and a feeling of fear that it will fly in from a strict mother. Hunger, not because there is no food at home, but because after school, sometimes without even going home, I would taxi with friends to some pampas... In the evening, for this, of course, I would get a spanking... Mom got carried away, until her own tears, taking out on me all her anxiety for me, the dissolute... Poor mother. And how many times have I run away from home! And it's all on her nerves. For some reason I didn't understand this. Maybe because she was very restrained in expressions of love? (Petrov 2002).
An interesting description of spanking as a norm of everyday life and an obligatory ritual of boyhood in the working-class area of late Soviet Leningrad is given by the anonymous author of the “belt” website (I retain the original spelling):
“It was also considered a matter of honor for a “real boy”, and “a real girl,” to be inexhaustible in inventing and implementing all sorts of tricks, that is, to “look for adventures on your ass” in the figurative and literal sense of the word. Directly, because, according to my estimates, in Petrogradskaya flogging was regularly used in 75% of families, and in the area beyond the Chernaya Rechka this percentage, it seems to me, exceeded 90. In any case, in the class where I studied from 4 On the 8th, only one boy was not spanked (and this was among 40 children). Even teachers in that area spoke out loud about spanking as a common punishment for a child.
She didn’t oppress us, she was familiar<...>there was something generic, reliable. If you are a boy, then it is clear that you will be flogged once a week: you have to give your parents a diary once a week to sign, but what does a real boy have in his diary? - it’s clear that there are bad marks and criticisms, and it’s clear what happens for this... They didn’t laugh at those who were spanked. They laughed at those who were punished differently... They laughed at those who were afraid of flogging and said, “I won’t take part in this mischief, they’ll flog me for it”, at those who asked for forgiveness and leniency before flogging, even over those who tried to make excuses before the flogging, over those who struggled, screamed and cried during the flogging - all this was considered a sign of effeminacy and cowardice. And who, having done something, the next day, when asked: “What did you do for that?” answered: “Nothing... They put 25 buckles on (and often a larger number was given). Nonsense... I didn’t move” - they didn’t laugh at him, he was considered a hero.
...Handing over your belt, dropping your pants and meekly lying down under the spanking (as I have always done, and many others too) is not humiliating. What's so humiliating if you're going to be whipped anyway... And this way, at least with action you can express your admission of guilt and repentance, if you feel them, or at least show that you have enough willpower to overcome your fear of spanking...
The parents of one of my classmates were divorced, and he lived with his mother, who believed that since the guy was growing up without a father, his mother should be especially strict with him. Because of such severity, this boy was the “champion” of the class in terms of spankings received at home. His mother always arrived from work at the same time: ten minutes to four. Mom checked his diary every day (however, this happened to me too, and this, quite logically, was considered more strict: several spankings a week instead of one). So, if this guy had deuces or remarks in his diary, then 5 minutes before his mother arrived, he placed a chair at the head of his bed, placed the diary unfolded on the page with a deuce or remark on the seat of the chair, took out the belt from his pants and hung it up on the back of the chair, pulled down his pants and lay down on the bed with his bare butt up to wait for his mother. If I was visiting him at that time, I would go out of delicacy into the corridor. Mom, when she came, had only to look at the diary, pronounce a sentence (and this guy, like me, like many others, was always flogged according to the number of strokes) and carry it out. The guy, at least, avoided the “bucket” of lectures that his mother could “pour” on him. And the sight of a belt and a butt ready for spanking did not provoke lectures, because the awareness of guilt and repentance was obvious.
This juxtaposition also gives a sense of “legitimacy.” You are not a toy in the hands of parental tyranny, but an object of “legal relations.” There is a family law (even if you didn’t participate in its development). You know that for this - from so many blows to so many, and for another - a different number. Before the spanking, the parent seems to “judge” you; it’s as if you are even equal before the law. In a sense, he can’t even help but flog you... And asking for forgiveness or leniency is like breaking the boundaries of the law and admitting that you are at the mercy of arbitrariness. In my opinion, this is very humiliating."
“Some fathers carry out their punitive duties with zeal and enthusiasm. For others, it is simply role behavior, a ritual that cannot be avoided.”
“I am used as, so to speak, an instrument of retribution and some factor in the punishing sword of justice. A punishing sword, when you need to shout, when he has already, so to speak, finished everyone off, when you need to turn off the game, when you need to slap him on the ass, etc., etc.”
“...I never tried to punish them, I could make noise, shout, sort of pretend to be menacing. If they did something wrong there, first I had to... at least pretend that I was formidable, that I was swearing. This is the function of the father. All their pranks should not pass without a trace. However, I always took it upon myself to see what he was doing and always tried to step into their shoes. I always understood that they weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, I’m the same. Therefore, I pretended that I was punishing, but that’s how I always understood them” (Rybalko 2006: 236-241).
Memories of girls
If the boys’ memories are centered on considerations of “fairness” and one’s own “coolness,” then the girls’ memories, chronologically later and posted on another site, look more emotional and often negative.
Svetlana
"I am 15 years old. It seems like I wasn’t even spanked before, maybe just a little bit, when I was little. Sometimes they put me in the corner. The first time my mother spanked me was when I was 9 years old. Now I know that it is very late. Almost everyone I spoke to here had been spanked much earlier. I found out that some have been spanked since they were 5 years old.
Mom spanked me for the first time because I skipped half of my classes with my friend. And I also managed to lie that everything was in order at school. Maybe they wouldn’t have beaten me if I had confessed honestly. At that time, I was generally afraid that I would have to stand in the corner for the rest of the day. This is before I realized that she would punish me with a belt.
Mom led me into the room, told me to pull down my pants and lie on the bed. My father was in another room, but from the very beginning he knew why my mother took me into the room. He probably knew better than I what awaited me. Before the spanking started, mom said something like, “Well, it’s time for you to find out what a belt is”...
After mom finished the spanking, I cried for a long time. But somehow the pain seemed to quickly stop. I could sit, but I felt it was painful.
Then, before I was 14, there were 4 more spankings, and they were remembered just like the first. It was very painful!!! But all these punishments were fair, I deserved them and I’m not offended by my mother.”
Daria
“I was very little, but I remember everything perfectly! I was only 4 years old. I took money without permission and bought a huge bag of sweets from the store to treat the whole yard to sweets. I still wonder how the sellers sold it to me? Although, probably, nothing strange, I was a good girl and became independent very early. After all, my parents themselves sent me to buy bread; the store was practically in the courtyard of the house. Mom saw me when I left the store.
She brought me home. Of course, I explained what I had done—in fact, I had stolen money from my mom and dad. This was a very serious offense in her eyes (yes, in fact, it is so).
I was wearing a dress. I even remember which one, because this episode is very strongly etched in my memory. The dress was blue with small white polka dots. And the panties are white. And a white collar, and a white apron. My mother sewed beautiful aprons for me, I loved helping around the house.
I stood in the corner and resisted, I didn’t want to take off my panties. Although I have always been a very flexible and obedient child! She said that if you don't pull your panties down, you'll get it even harder. I was very scared. I didn't understand her. I asked for forgiveness and promised that I would never take money again. But she was adamant."
Anastasia
“I’m 17 years old now. When I was little, like all children, I did things that were strictly forbidden to do. She was also wildly capricious. When mom couldn’t cope with words, she moved on to the belt. My mother always spanked me with a belt only for very serious offenses. Now I know for sure - that’s what I need!
Not always with a belt, it happened, and jumping ropes, whatever came to hand. The jumps are rubber and hit you noticeably. They always spanked me standing up, I don’t know why, there were probably some reasons. Maybe it feels better. And when they lashed us with jumping ropes, they also took off their pants.”
Natalia
“I’ll tell you how they punished me with flogging in the family of my friends. I used to be a nanny in this family and am friendly with the parents. Their family is believer. This was done at night after the children had already washed themselves. The baby was 7 years old, the girl was 3 years old, I don’t know if she is being punished or not. The child knew that he had misbehaved during the day and would be spanked. This kid also knows that he is loved very much, and that is why he will be punished. Before going to bed, they simply took off his pants and spanked him with a strap.
At the same time, the father said that he did not want to punish his son, but the son is guilty and must be punished, that is, the punishment should not be rash, but deliberate...
Mom supported dad in this and told her son: “I love you very much, and I wouldn’t want dad to spank you with a strap, but you did something wrong and you need to be punished.” In fact, it is very important when parents maintain the same position in their demands on the child.
I myself also accept their version of punishment. I believe that punishment should not be immediate, but deliberate and in the evening. However, I myself was flogged right away as a child.”
Maria
“I am the eldest child in the family, and they started punishing me with a belt when I was 7-8 years old. They thrashed me, starting with slips of the tongue (my upbringing was very strict) and ending with being 5 minutes late from a walk, the color of my lipstick.
Even then, I realized that I was not a particularly desirable child and my problem was that I was equally like my parents. Outwardly they both look like their father, but their character is more like their father’s. Therefore, the desire was to break him. His mother, a very powerful woman, herself brought up in strictness, influenced him, but also helped him all his life. Since my parents were military personnel and were often on the move, most of the time until I was 6 years old I was with my grandmother. Only she treated me better than her son. Maybe it was my father’s envy, maybe it was anger at my mother, but his attitude towards me was hateful. Sometimes these were outbursts of emotion on the part of the father, and everything that came to hand was used. Sometimes a specific punishment for something.
I can say from myself that then the fear of the belt and pain goes away. The “challenge” to my parents begins, that I am like this and even with a belt you can’t knock my crap out! Then my father decided that if I left obvious traces of flogging and beatings on visible parts of my body, then such actions would definitely scare me. Traces from the belt and then from the jump rope remained on the face and hands. The marks on my body never bothered him. He was never ashamed of his footprints or his other actions. It was more of a way to humiliate and show me who is right.”
Despite the gender differences in perception, these girls and boys turned out to be visitors to a “belt” site that outsiders hardly visit. This means that the spanking experienced in childhood had long-term psychosexual consequences and contributed to the development of a certain addiction.
In the 1980s, the conspiracy of silence around corporal punishment was “broken” by the famous children's surgeon S. Ya. Doletsky and the writer and teacher S. L. Soloveichik, who were soon joined by the wonderful children's writer and human rights activist A. I. Pristavkin.
Modern Russia
In post-Soviet Russia the picture remains contradictory. On the one hand, there is a noticeable increase in critical attitude towards corporal punishment, not only as a manifestation of violence and cruelty, but also in principle. On the other hand, impoverishment and general criminalization of the country contribute to the growth of violence against children. It is often difficult to distinguish the real growth of this kind of behavior from the illusions of mass consciousness, which tends to nostalgically idealize the past (“everything was fine before, but now children are raped and beaten”). Moreover, the authorities and the opposition play on the same platform and use the same arguments, only their “culprits” are different. Communists and Westernized democrats talk about the horrific increase in child abuse to show what the “Putin regime” has brought the country to. Churchmen and ultranationalists use the same figures to discredit “rotten liberalism,” the “corrupt West,” and the “dashing 90s.” And officials and deputies, instead of answering why the treatment of children has worsened over the years of their rule, use the same data to prove how difficult the tasks they face are and how passionately they care about the children of their constituents. “Protecting children” is the best way to divert public attention from government policy failures.
If even official criminal statistics on sexual crimes against children, which can and should be based on clear articles of the Criminal Code, are unreliable and unreliable (Kon 2010: 463-468), what can we expect from Duma and government commissions, whose reports are generally not verifiable due to their unprofessionalism? By whom and how the original data was obtained is usually unknown. I do not undertake to dispute the figures given at the beginning of this article, but I do not exclude the possibility that some of them are propaganda horror stories. Criticizing them is not only difficult, but also dangerous. If you say that the numbers are exaggerated, you will immediately be accused of hating children and condoning child abuse. And if we say that they are understated, and violence against children grows every year regardless of the socio-economic state of the country and changes in legislation, we get only hopeless pessimism, but also “Russophobia”: what can you expect from a people consisting half of sadists?
Mass surveys conducted by independent public and scientific organizations seem to be more objective, but they also contain many ambiguities and contradictions.
Prevalence of corporal punishment
Of the adult respondents of the FOM (2004 survey), 27% did not experience physical punishment, 40% did. “They beat me with what was at hand,” “a rope, a stick,” “a nettle or a twig,” “an officer’s belt.” However, cohort indicators definitely indicate a softening of morals: among 18-24 year olds, 33% were unflogged, and among 55-64 year olds - only 18% (Presnyakova 2004). This is consistent with the general trend of decreasing physical violence noted by researchers (Nazaretyan 2009).
In a later FOM survey (2008), every second adult respondent mentioned having experienced corporal punishment, with 16% of them punishing often and 33% rarely. Boys are punished much more often than girls: 40% of men and 55% of women were not punished at all, often - 20 and 12%, rarely - 37 and 29%, respectively. The opinion that today in Russia there are no parents who would physically punish their children was supported by only 2% of survey participants. But 52% of men and 32% of women believe that they were deservedly spanked. Comparing the current situation with the period of their school childhood, 26% of respondents suggested that now children are physically punished less often, 17% - more often, 17% - that little has changed in this matter; the rest found it difficult to answer (Pedagogical... b.g.).
These supposed shifts are also interpreted in different ways. Some (5%) believe that “they used to treat children more strictly,” but now they are “more pitying and pampered.” Others say that “parenting approaches have changed”; “nowadays it’s somehow not customary to beat children”; “uncivilized methods - that’s what everyone thinks”; “they persuade more.” Some see this as a sign of the increased level of pedagogical and general culture parents: “more literate parents”; “more pedagogically literate”; “people have become more civilized”; “the cultural level is increasing” (3%). Another 3%, on the contrary, consider this evidence of inattention, a disregard for children: “there is more indifference on the part of the parents: no matter what the child amuses himself with...”; “adults have no time for children, they work”; “they don’t care about children at all”; “they are not educated, they are abandoned on the streets, running through garbage dumps”; "don't care about the kids." Some respondents believe that the reason for changes in upbringing methods is not so much the parents as the children themselves: “the children themselves do not allow this to be done to them”; “children began to know their rights”; “children have become smarter, you can’t touch them again”; “children are vulnerable, very literate now, and can fight back” (2%).
According to a study commissioned by the Children's Support Fund in April - May 2009 (representative all-Russian sample, 1225 respondents aged 16 to 44 years), 51.8% of the parents surveyed admitted that they resorted to physical punishment “for educational purposes”, and 1.8% did it often, 17.8% did it sometimes, and 31.4% did it rarely; women resort to physical punishment of children more often than men (the share of women is 56.8%, the share of men is 44.5%). The authors attribute this to the fact that mothers are more likely to take responsibility for raising children. The prevalence of corporal punishment and domestic violence is most influenced by two factors: income level and education level. Among wealthy respondents, the prevalence of physical punishment is much lower than among the poor (40.1% and 62.6%, respectively). More educated respondents are less likely to use physical punishment than uneducated respondents.
An interesting regional study from several blocks was conducted by the Saratov Center for Social Policy and Gender Research (Yarskaya-Smirnova et al. 2008). In 2006, in three Russian cities (Izhevsk, Samara, Saratov), a street express survey of citizens, a survey of schoolchildren and parents, and interviews with specialists were conducted. 1,783 people took part in the express survey, including 842 parents of minor children. Later, in Saratov, Samara, Izhevsk, and Kazan, 700 schoolchildren from 8 to 14 years old and 510 parents were surveyed. The sampling design involved a survey in each city of a group of parents at the place of study of their children, usually at parent meetings At school. Children were surveyed after classes - as a whole class, and in each city two types of schools were surveyed - a school in a “prosperous” area and a “disadvantaged” one, 85 people in each type of school. Saratov sociologists tried to distinguish between physical punishment (as a form of domestic discipline) and violence against children. As a rule, people distinguish between these phenomena, understanding by physical violence the infliction of bodily harm that causes damage to the child’s health, disrupts his mental and social development. Although nearly 35% of adults surveyed and 61.4% of parents believe that physical punishment of children is simply a “form of discipline,” the majority definitely prefer milder forms of discipline. Physical punishment (punishment with a belt, slaps on the head, slaps in the face) is mentioned by approximately 18% of respondents.
Several surveys conducted since 1998 under the leadership of N.D. Shelyapin (not having access to primary data, I cannot judge the quality of the sample and calculation methods) have revealed an increased tendency to corporal punishment in the families of military and police officers (Belovranin, Zaostrovsky 2009). Among the St. Petersburg students surveyed who were beaten at home, 26% grew up in the families of security forces, where physical punishment was regular and even turned into sophisticated rituals; Often they were subjected not to preschool children, but to boys (and more often girls) under 16-19 years of age. For many of them, spanking remains an attribute of everyday life even at 22 years old! Finding out who, how and with what parents beat, and if they didn’t beat, then why, sociologists discovered that civilian fathers who practice spanking are most often uneducated and drunk people, and in the families of security forces, even doctors of science use physical cruelty when raising them. A rating of instruments of punishment was also compiled. The first place in this “hit parade” was taken by the uniform belt, the power of which was felt by 75% of the corrected contingent. In second place is the seemingly quite peaceful jumping rope, which “jumped” over the bodies of 13% of respondents, most often female. In third place is the centuries-old grandfather's rod, which scored about 5%. There are also more exotic tools, such as a roll of foil, a beater, slippers, a boiler, a vacuum cleaner pipe, a hammer and even... a live chicken! The saddest thing is that 82% of St. Petersburg students said that the methods of bodily pressure used on them were necessary, and 61% - that they completely approved of beating as a method of education. By the way, some of these students are future teachers.
The most methodologically advanced and the only theoretically oriented domestic research using internationally recognized tool measuring disciplinary action(IIDV) ( dimensionsofdisciplineinventory, DDI) M. Straus was carried out under the direction of A.V. Lysova in Vladivostok (Lysova, Istomina 2009).
In 2007, 575 adult residents of Vladivostok (51% women) were surveyed who had at least one child under 18 living with them for most of the week. Under corporal punishment the authors understand the use of physical force by a parent or person in his surrogate with the intent to cause pain to the child (excluding physical harm) in order to correct and control his behavior. Unlike physical violence, corporal punishment is most often a legitimate act that is not recognized as a crime, rarely leads to physical injury or psychological trauma to the child, and is considered in society an acceptable form of parental behavior towards their own children. It turned out that about half - 46% - of the parents surveyed used corporal punishment on their children. This figure is close to data from the United States, where about 40% of parents have physically punished their child at least once. As for gender differences, as in the United States, mothers are more likely than fathers to corporally punish children (50% of surveyed mothers versus 36% of fathers); the most common form of punishment is slaps and slaps on the head among both women and men, but men to a greater extent than women, they use an object, such as a belt or a stick, to punish.
Despite all the merits of Lysova’s study, the sample is small and, moreover, not random: almost 52% of respondents had higher education, and such people are less likely to use and approve of corporal punishment. This is not enough for broad generalizations and cross-cultural comparisons.
What do the children themselves say? Of Moscow high school students (grades 7-11) surveyed in 2001, only 3.1% of boys and 2.8% of girls admitted that their parents used physical force against them as punishment (Sobkin 2003). In the Saratov studies of E. R. Yarskaya-Smirnova, the question “Have you ever had to run away from home?” 5% of the children surveyed answered affirmatively; to the question “Why?” 14% said they were beaten at home. To the question “How often do your parents hit you?” 2% of children said “often”, 21% - “rarely”, 76% - “never”. Why are they beating? For grades - 42%, for bad behavior - 79%, just like that - 6%. 40% of children admit that they “deserved” punishment (Yarskaya-Smirnova et al. 2008).
Given differences in age and social background, children's responses are as ambiguous and difficult to compare as their parents'.
Attitudes towards corporal punishment
To the question of the All-Union VTsIOM questionnaire (April 1992) “Is it acceptable to physically punish children?” Only 16% of Russians answered affirmatively, while 58% were against. Russians turned out to be more humane than other nations in this regard former USSR: Corporal punishment of children at that time was considered normal and acceptable by 24% of Estonians, 29% of Lithuanians and 39% of Uzbeks. Perhaps the Soviet stereotypes of that time had a stronger effect in Russia. When people began to express their own opinions, their attitudes became more rigid. In a 2004 FOM survey, corporal punishment of children was considered acceptable by over half - 54% of Russians; only 47% were against it. The most liberal are Muscovites (48%), young people aged 18 to 24 (50%) and those who were not physically punished in childhood (52%). However, it is difficult to judge the real dynamics - the samples and questionnaires are too different. In a 2008 FOM survey, 67% agreed with the opinion that corporal punishment of school-age children is “sometimes necessary.” To the question of the Levada Center (Zorkaya, Leonova 2004) “Do the parents of a 13-14 year old teenager have the right to physically punish him?” 37% answered affirmatively (in 2000 it was 27%), negatively - 61%. But here the limiting factor is the age of those punished (right is right, and flogging a teenager is not so easy).
In a survey by the Research Center of the SuperJob.ru portal (March 2008), corporal punishment in general view Only 9% of Russians considered it a necessary method of education. But “necessary” and “permissible” are different things. Some respondents consider this measure acceptable only for boys. Others appeal to own experience: “We were also spanked, and nothing... We grew up normal”; “I tested it myself - it’s useful.” The majority - 61% - consider “physical influence on children for educational purposes” to be extremely undesirable and permissible only in exceptional cases. 30% of respondents consider corporal punishment of children fundamentally unacceptable: in their opinion, the use of a belt or cuffs only generates “a negative reaction, fear, suppresses independence”, “contributes to the development of various complexes in the child.” At the same time, there are twice as many men who consider corporal punishment an integral part of the educational process as women (12% versus 6%), 34% of women and 25% of men consider it unacceptable. People over 50 years of age speak most often about the benefits of a slap and a slap on the head, and the largest number of their opponents are among young people under 20 years of age. 25% of Russians with children, and one in three (33%) among childless people are categorically against corporal punishment.
According to a study by the Foundation for Support of Children in Difficult Life Situations, 36.9% of parents believe that physical violence is harmful to children, but 5.6% believe that it is impossible to raise a child “without assault.” Saratov sociologists also encountered difficulties in conceptually distinguishing between “corporal punishment” and “child abuse”: every third respondent knows about cases of child abuse, almost half considers corporal punishment unacceptable, a third believes that it should be used depending on the situation, but one in ten thinks it is okay to hit children.
One of the main reasons for the prevalence of corporal punishment in Russia is the general “tolerance” to violence, the victims of which are not only adults, but also children. Self-descriptions of different generations are often indistinguishable. This is hard to believe, but one of the staunch supporters of corporal punishment was the famous writer and philosopher V.V. Rozanov, who after After graduating from Moscow University (1882), he worked as a gymnasium teacher of history and geography for eleven years and a great mentor. He says that mothers of students (always widows) often came to him as a last resort with a request to punish their loose boy with rods (that is, to have this done in the gymnasium). Since this was already prohibited by the “paragraphs,” the teacher recommended turning to one of the relatives for spanking. Rozanov did not experience any moral doubts about this, citing the fact that both Luther and Lomonosov were raised with rods (Rozanov 1990: 141-142).
Perhaps this is partly due to the sadistic inclinations of the writer. One of his former students recalls his treatment of first-graders this way: “When the student answered, standing in front of his desk, you. You. he came close to him, hugged him by the neck and took his earlobe, and while he answered, he twisted it all the time, and when the student made a mistake, he pulled it painfully. If the student answered from his seat, then he sat in his place on the desk, and put the answerer between his legs and all the time squeezed the student with them and pinched him painfully if he was mistaken. If the student read the lesson he had chosen while sitting in his place, you. You. he would come up to him from behind and stab him painfully in the neck with a feather when he made a mistake. If the student protested and whined, then you. You. pricked him even more painfully. From these injections, some students retained an ink tattoo for the rest of their lives. Sometimes while reading a new lesson<...>You. You. he went to the pulpit, put both hands deeply into his trouser pocket, and then began to perform some manipulations with [them]. One of the students noticed this and snorted, and then what we called the beating of babies began” (Obolyaninov 1963: 268).
But sadism is not a necessary condition for spanking. A.P. Chekhov, whom his father mercilessly flogged as a child, which the writer did not forget or forgive, in the story “On Drama” describes a scene of flogging in a relative's way at home. Chekhov's story is a vicious satire on liberal intellectuals who chat about lofty matters, and during the break are ready to flog a defenseless child.
Today, as in the past, ideology is often hidden behind everyday problems. No wonder the question causes such fierce controversy. According to Western liberals, corporal punishment is a camouflaged form of violence against children, which should be legally prohibited not only in school, but also in the family. Communists and Orthodox fundamentalists (as on many other issues, their positions are very close) categorically disagree with this. Recognizing the need for love of children and care for children, they object to restrictions on parental power, one of the attributes of which is physical punishment. A Tambov communist teacher on the pages of “Soviet Russia” even advocates public flogging of children: “... public flogging. Yes, yes, in a specially equipped place, with a special object and a special person. I assure you, the impact is colossal... Physical punishment in the family should be officially permitted.” For what? For example, “for early onset of sexual activity” (Vereshchagin 2006).
Their defenders often differ in assessing the effectiveness of specific physical punishments. The luminary of Orthodox pedagogy T. Shishova, who calls the liberalization of parents’ views on the problem of punishment “scarlet fever”, calls for a distinction between a harmless spanking and punishment with a belt. “This is truly painful and sobering even for the most violent. That’s why it should be used only for serious offenses” (Shishova 2005). On the contrary, the former St. Petersburg ombudsman I. Mikhailov, whose “mother was a police inspector. And she had everything under control,” gives absolute preference to the belt: “... I did this - I said it once, I said it twice, and on the third I moved it. With a belt! You can't hit with your hand. For those parents who still prefer pressure, I recommend: make sure the belt is not too hard so as not to break the child’s insides” (quoted in: Belovranin, Zaostrovsky 2009).
Popular writer, professor at MGIMO and host of the excellent TV show “Clever Men and Smart Girls” Yu. P. Vyazemsky on the pages of Komsomolskaya Pravda and in the television program “ Cultural Revolution”(01/16/2009) also stated that “you can’t do without flogging”: “You definitely need to flog for serious offenses. Taras Bulba killed his son Andriy for treason. And those who read Gogol do not condemn him, but consider Taras’s action to be correct. But! Physical punishment must under no circumstances be turned into torture or humiliation” (Question... 2009). Since in the eyes of the general public he looked like a “typical intellectual,” this statement caused a terrible scandal in the blogosphere, Vyazemsky began to be called a serf-owner (his pseudonym was mistaken for a princely surname), a sadist and even a pedophile. But the attitude towards corporal punishment may have nothing to do with either the level of education or the psychosexual characteristics of the individual. It’s just that this professor’s views are clerical and ultra-conservative...
What's the result? The fact that Russia has already embarked on the European path of liberalizing family discipline is evidenced not only by official declarations of intent and the creation of the post of Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, but also by the sharply increased media attention to these issues, as well as the dynamics of mass public consciousness. However, this path is long and contradictory.
Parental attitudes and disciplinary practices of Russians often do not coincide with each other, and both are very diverse. Gender differences in Russia are practically the same as in Western countries. Mothers corporally punish their children more often than fathers, but fathers do it more severely, with the use of some kind of tools (whipping with a belt versus spanking). Boys seem to be spanked more than girls, but this is not a general rule; the differences are more qualitative than quantitative. Although both parents and children consider corporal punishment a means of education, it often manifests sadistic tendencies or serves as a means of emotional release for adults, and some spanked children forever retain their addiction to spanking.
There is no evidence-based macro-social statistics on the prevalence and psychological consequences of corporal punishment of children in Russia. In addition, the problem is extremely politicized and ideological. In order to improve Russian legislation, help people understand the costs of traditional pedagogical practices and ensure the safety and well-being of children, further research on the topic and clarification of its conceptual apparatus based on international experience are necessary.
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The abbreviation BDSM stands for bondage (tying up), discipline, sadism and masochism. For more details see: Kon b. G.
I express my gratitude to T. A. Gurko for the opportunity to familiarize myself not only with the published findings, but also with the primary data of this survey.
I express my gratitude to E.R. Yarskaya-Smirnova for the opportunity to familiarize myself not only with the published materials, but also with other blocks of this survey.
Rods to school! - they decided in Britain and returned to such a radical method of punishing and preventing school violations. By the way, the return of assault to schools is supported by a significant number of British people, including schoolchildren themselves. Such a harsh reaction to the actions of students is an imitation of brutality, which is so lacking in the education system.
It is noteworthy that the first to abandon corporal punishment, as a humiliating and painful procedure, was Russian Empire, and this exception was made in 1783 for educational institutions located in the territories ceded to Russia after the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The rest of the country continued to be flogged, about which almost all Russian classics complained.
By the way, physical punishment was completely abolished in Russian schools in 1917. At the beginning of the last century, other countries began to gradually abandon this practice. European countries- Austria and Belgium. Punishments were also abolished in Russian-owned Finland.
In Britain, they began to officially abolish assault in schools only in the late 80s. Moreover, this only applied to public schools. Corporal punishment was banned in England and Wales in 1999, Scotland in 2000 and Northern Ireland in 2003.
The main instrument of punishment in many public and private schools in England and Wales was (and is) a flexible rattan cane, which is used to strike the arms or buttocks. In some places a belt was used instead of a cane. In Scotland and a number of British schools, a leather ribbon with a handle - towsi - was very popular.
A common tool is a paddle - a special paddle in the form of an elongated plate with a handle made of wood or leather.
Another leader of world democracy, the United States, was also in no hurry to abandon the practice of bodily suggestion. Again, the private school system and public education should not be confused.
Only 29 states in the country have a ban on the use of physical discipline, and only two of them - New Jersey and Iowa - prohibit corporal punishment by law, and in private schools too. Moreover, in the 21st state it is not prohibited to punish in schools. Basically, these states are located in the South of the United States.
However, private schools, including prestigious ones, have retained this tool of influencing students in their arsenal. The teaching staff of non-state educational institutions were only recommended to stop beating students. However, push-ups and other additional physical activity for particularly active students in the military spirit seem to have quite successfully survived the period of prohibitions.
And now physical influences are returning to everything British schools officially. According to the Independent, citing results from the Times Educational Supplement, 49 percent of adults are not opposed to the active use of public spanking and other corporal punishment in schools. Every fifth of the 530 children surveyed said the same.
The current Minister of Education, Michael Gove, is also in favor of returning corporal punishment to educational institutions. This summer, teachers were finally allowed to physically prevent teenagers from acting if they threaten public order. And after the recent riots in London, according to the Minister of Education, schools should become tougher.
“If some parent now hears at school: “Sorry, we have no right to use physical force on students,” then this school is wrong. Simply wrong. The rules of the game have changed,” the minister said.
Also, the head of the country's educational department suggests that more men should work in schools. And he proposes to hire military retirees for this, who will have authority among the most passionate students.
The problem of the lack of male teachers in the domestic education system has long been recognized by many Russian experts. However, the low level wages, the formalization of the work of schools that goes beyond the bounds of common sense, the dominance of “honored” teachers and bureaucrats in education, as well as the demonstrated possibilities of “pedophilic promotion” of even an absolutely innocent person, scares away full-fledged and educated men from school.