Until recently, in the social structure of many countries it was believed that parental love consists of a strict attitude towards children, and any corporal punishment implied benefits for the child himself. And until the beginning of the twentieth century rod was commonplace, and in some countries this punishment took place until the end of the century. And what is noteworthy is that each nationality has its own national method of flogging, developed over centuries: in China - bamboo, in Persia - a whip, in Russia - rods, and in England - a stick. The Scots preferred the belt and acne skin.
One of the famous public figures Russia said: “ The whole life of the people passed under the eternal fear of torture: they were flogged by parents at home, flogged by teachers at school, flogged by the landowner in the stable, flogged by owners of crafts, flogged by officers, police officers, volost judges, and Cossacks.”
Rods, being means of education in educational institutions, were soaked in a tub installed at the end of the classroom and were always ready for use. For various children's pranks and offenses, a certain number of blows with rods was clearly provided.
English "method" of education with rods
A popular English proverb says: “If you spare the stick, you will spoil the child.” They really never spared canes on children in England. To justify the use of corporal punishment against children, the British often referred to the Bible, especially the parables of Solomon.
Regarding the famous Eton rods of the 19th century, they instilled terrible fear in the hearts of the students. It was a broom made from a bundle of thick rods attached to a meter-long handle. The preparation of such rods was carried out by the director's servant, who brought an armful of them to school every morning. A huge number of trees were used up for this, but the game was considered to be worth the candle.
For simple offenses, the student was given 6 strokes; for serious offenses, their number increased. They sometimes flogged me until they bled, and the marks from the blows did not go away for weeks.
In English schools of the 19th century, guilty girls were flogged much less often than boys. Mostly they were beaten on the arms or shoulders; only in very rare cases were the pupils' trousers removed. In correctional schools, for “difficult” girls, rods, a cane and a thong were used with great zeal.
And what is noteworthy: corporal punishment in public schools Britain was categorically banned by the European Court in Strasbourg, believe it or not, only in 1987. Private schools resorted to corporal punishment of students for another 6 years after that.
The tradition of severe punishment of children in Rus'
For many centuries, corporal punishment was widely practiced in Russia. Moreover, if in worker-peasant families parents could easily attack a child with their fists, then children from the middle class were decorously flogged with rods. Canes, brushes, slippers and everything that parental ingenuity was capable of were also used as means of education. Often the duties of nannies and governesses included flogging their pupils. In some families, fathers “raised” their children themselves.
Punishment of children with rods in educational institutions was practiced everywhere. They beat me not only for offenses, but also simply for “preventive purposes.” And students of elite educational institutions were beaten even harder and more often than those who attended school in native village.
And what is completely shocking is that parents were punished for their fanaticism only in those cases if they accidentally killed their children in the process of “upbringing.” For this crime they were sentenced to a year in prison and church repentance. And this despite the fact that at that time, for any other murder without mitigating circumstances, death penalty. From all this it followed that lenient punishment to parents for their crime contributed to the development of infanticide.
"For one beaten, they give seven unbeaten"
The highest aristocratic nobility did not at all hesitate to commit assault and flog their children with rods. This was the norm of behavior towards offspring even in royal families.
For example, the future Emperor Nicholas I, as well as his young brothers, were flogged mercilessly by their mentor, General Lamsdorf. With rods, rulers, gun cleaning rods. Sometimes, in a rage, he could grab the Grand Duke by the chest and slam him against the wall so that he fainted. And what was terrible was that not only was this not hidden, but he also wrote it down in his daily journal.
Ivan Turgenev recalled the cruelty of his mother, who whipped him until he came of age, complaining that he himself often did not know why he was punished: “They beat me up for all sorts of trifles, almost every day. Once a hanger-on reported me to my mother. My mother, without any trial or reprisal, immediately began to flog me - and flogged me with her own hands, and in response to all my pleas to tell me why I was being punished like this, she said: you know, you should know, guess for yourself, guess for yourself why I’m being flogged you!"
Afanasy Fet and Nikolai Nekrasov were subjected to corporal punishment in childhood.
How little Alyosha Peshkov, the future proletarian writer Gorky, was beaten until he lost consciousness is known from his story “Childhood.” And the fate of Fedya Teternikov, who became the poet and prose writer Fyodor Sologub, is full of tragedy, since in childhood he was mercilessly beaten and “took to” beating so much that physical pain became for him a cure for mental pain.
Pushkin's wife, Natalya Goncharova, who was never interested in her husband's poems, was a strict mother. Raising extreme modesty and obedience in her daughters, she mercilessly whipped them on the cheeks for the slightest offense. She herself, being charmingly beautiful and raised on childhood fears, was never able to shine in the world.
Ahead of its time, even during her reign, Catherine II, in her work “Instructions for raising grandchildren,” called for a renunciation of violence. But only in the second quarter XIX century Views on raising children began to change seriously. And in 1864, during the reign of Alexander II, the “Decree on the exemption from corporal punishment of students of secondary educational institutions” appeared. But in those days, flogging students was considered so natural that such a decree of the emperor was perceived by many as too liberal.
Count Leo Tolstoy advocated the abolition of corporal punishment. In the fall of 1859, he opened a Yasnaya Polyana school for peasant children and stated that “the school is free and there will be no rods in it.” And in 1895 he wrote the article “Shame,” in which he protested against corporal punishment of peasants.
This torture was officially abolished only in 1904. Nowadays, punishment is officially prohibited in Russia, but assault is not uncommon in families, and thousands of children are still afraid of their father’s belt or rod. So the rod, having begun its history in Ancient Rome, lives to this day.
About how British schoolchildren rebelled under the slogan:
you can find out
The UK government, in response to the London riots, intends to allow harsh methods of raising children in schools, including the use of physical force to punish disobedient students, the Guardian newspaper writes.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has said the rule requiring teachers to record every instance of physical force used against unruly pupils should be scrapped to help "restore adult authority" after the London riots.
Speaking at Durand Academy in Stockwell, south London, Gove said school rules limited teachers' use of physical punishment.
"Let me be very clear. If any parent now hears at school: 'Sorry, we have no right to physically touch students,' then that school is wrong. Simply wrong. The rules of the game have changed," the minister said.
He also said that he would like to attract more men to work in schools as teachers, especially in primary school so that they could demonstrate strength.
The government plans to launch a program this fall to bring former military personnel into schools.
(from here).
Well, after what the “kids” did this summer during the pogroms in British cities, somehow one can understand...
But it’s interesting what they would write in our foreign media, what if punishment with canings were introduced in Russian schools?
And here's more about corporal punishment in British schools - from the history of the issue.
Reference:
In the UK, in public schools and private schools where the state owns at least a share of the capital, corporal punishment has been outlawed by Parliament since 1987. Other private schools banned such punishments in 1999 (England and Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2003 (Northern Ireland). In 1993, the European Court of Human Rights heard the case of Costello-Roberts v. Great Britain and ruled by 5 votes to 4 that striking a seven-year-old boy three times with a sneaker through his trousers was not prohibited degrading treatment.
The instrument of punishment in many public and private schools in England and Wales was a flexible rattan cane, used to strike the arms or (especially in the case of boys) the buttocks. Slipper beating was widely used as a less formal alternative. In some English cities, a belt was used instead of a cane.
In Scotland, a leather band with a towsi handle, used for striking the hands, was a universal weapon in public schools, but some private schools preferred the cane.
More than 20 years after the ban, there is a noticeable divergence of views on the issue of corporal punishment in public schools. A 2008 survey of 6,162 British teachers by the Times Educational Supplement found that one in five teachers and 22% of teachers in secondary schools wanted to reintroduce the use of canes in extreme cases. At the same time, a government study found that many Britons believe that the abolition of corporal punishment in schools was a significant factor in the marked overall decline in children's behavior.
Guide to LEAs" Corporal Punishment Regulations in England and Wales, Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment, Croydon, 1979.
"Rise and fall of the belt", Sunday Standard, Glasgow, 28 February 1982.
Kamal Ahmed, “He could talk his way out of things”, The Observer, London, 27 April 2003.
“A “fifth of teachers back caning””, BBC News Online, 3 October 2008.
Adi Bloom, “Survey whips up debate on caning”, Times Educational Supplement, London, 10 October 2008.
Graeme Paton, “Banning the cane started slide in pupil discipline, parents believe”, The Daily Telegraph, London, 27 February 2009.
See also for more details.
Happy schoolchildren of the 21st century have a vague idea of the rigor in which their great-grandfathers were brought up and studied. Now bodily punishments for poor academic performance or unsatisfactory behavior seem to be something unusual. But for many centuries this punishment of schoolchildren was considered the norm and was used in almost all countries of the world.
History of corporal punishment in schools goes back centuries. Back in Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome teachers treated careless students with rods. Homer often received a portion of rods from his teacher Toilius. Horace called his teacher nothing more than “Orbilius, who beats.” Quintilian and Plutarch opposed corporal punishment, considering it harmful to students and degrading their human dignity. However, most teachers were pro-spanking.
In the Middle Ages flogging played main role in education. Moreover, students were punished not only for bad behavior and unlearned lessons, but also simply for prevention, in accordance with the general belief that students should be whipped! Erasmus of Rotterdam testifies to this. Despite the diligence and ability of the student, who was his teacher’s favorite, he was still subjected to corporal punishment. The teacher wanted to see how Erasmus would react to the pain and endure the beatings. This kind of upbringing was disastrous for the student: the mood fell, interest in knowledge was lost, and it was simply impossible to study.
It was not possible without rods and the education of princes of the blood. Only in this case, it was not the royal persons themselves who were flogged, but the boys assigned to them, the so-called “comrades for punishment.” The poor fellows were forced to endure severe punishments due to the misdeeds of their well-born peers.
Although not all princes were so lucky. George III, for example, ordered his sons' tutor: “If they deserve it, order them to be flogged. Do as you are accustomed to doing at Westminster."
The order that reigned in Westminster was considered the most severe among educational institutions in England. The Westminster School used rods not made from birch twigs, or, as they were often called, “birch porridge,” but from four branches of an apple tree, which were attached to a wooden handle. Two of the students were selected and they were required to deliver cutting materials to the school in a timely manner. Such students were called “rod masters.”
Scottish schools were not inferior to English ones in the severity of punishments. Only the teachers’ “tools of labor” differed: in Scotland it was believed that it was better to flog careless students with a hard leather belt, divided at the end into thin strips. In one of higher schools Edinburgh teacher Nicole punished six to seven people at a time. He lined up the offending students and invited his colleague through a messenger: “Greetings from Mr. Nicolas, he invites you to listen to his orchestra.” As soon as the guest appeared "in auditorium", a quick and brutal spanking began. Nicole walked past the line and, with refined blows, extracted all kinds of sounds and groans from his victims.
With the improvement of pedagogical methods, new forms and instruments of punishment for disobedient, lazy students were invented. In Kenya and China they preferred to “teach the mind” with a bamboo twig. In the UK, in addition to flogging, negligent students were often placed on peas with their bare knees. Russian schools happily adopted this “invention,” and schoolchildren stood on scattered peas for four hours, and sometimes longer.
In Brazil, children used to be beaten, but now the punishment is a ban on playing football. Japanese teachers were especially sophisticated in their punishments: the offending student was forced to stand with a porcelain cup on his head, one leg straightened at a right angle to his body. Namibia's teachers were also not particularly humane: a common punishment was to stand motionless under a wasp's nest. By the way, despite the ban by the Minister of Education, this method is still used in schools in Namibia.
For this Friday, 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 the most creepy cases I still decided not to bring it, even I was shocked).
And since the topic of corporal punishment of children is inherently flamboyant, I’ll say right away what comments I don’t need here:
1) Even if you think that spanking children is useful and very healthy, you do not have to share your opinion with me. There are a lot of special communities, forums, etc. for this. My cozy zhezheshka flame on the topic "To beat or not to beat?" will not decorate at all. 2) Please do not post ambiguous pictures on the topic of TN children in the comments. Because this is still a historical sketch, no no grand opening pedophile parties.
And I always welcome sane comments and am very grateful to everyone who shares information with me.
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 became the book “The 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 hell. (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 dealt 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 classroom 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 I struck her painfully with the rod several times on her bare neck. Not a single tear appeared in Burns’ eyes, and although I was forced to put down my sewing at the sight of this sight, as my fingers trembled from a feeling of helpless and bitter anger, her face retained its usual meek expression. 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 did not involve 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. Student from junior classes entered the service of a high school student - brought him breakfast and tea, lit the fireplace and, if necessary, could run to the tobacconist's 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 by abolishing 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 was now good for the dog 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 spanking - to scare as much as possible in one fell swoop. more people. 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 into account public opinion 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, at the same Eton. Part of this training included regular corporal punishment. In the excerpt below, little George was called to the headmaster to be whipped for the serious offense of wetting 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 good location spirit. 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, were you flogged?
“It didn’t even hurt,” I answered proudly.
Flip heard everything. Immediately I heard her scream addressed to me.
- Well, come here! Immediately! What did you say?
“I said it didn’t hurt,” I stammered.
- How dare you say such a thing! 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—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 in English public schools, as well as in private schools receiving government subsidies, banned 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 German artist Hansenclever's "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 better, more English education. 
Etonian in the 20th century 
Sources of information
Ian Gibson, "The English Vice"
http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/joys/russian/r_joys
http://www.corpun.com/counuks.htm
http://www.corpun.com/counuss.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-19-corporal-punishment_N.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/20/corporal.punishment/
Since ancient times the most in an effective way The punishment for schoolchildren was beating. Today, most countries in the world prohibit corporal punishment for children. However, before this measure was adopted, the physical method of influencing the offending student was extremely common. In private closed schools, children were punished cruelly and mercilessly. Unless they allowed the death of students, which could have caused widespread publicity and uproar. Children were placed on peas with their bare knees, beaten with rods, limited in food, or even forced to starve.
The instrument of punishment in many public and private schools in England and Wales was a flexible rattan cane for striking the arms or buttocks. Beating with a slipper was also widely used. In some English cities, a belt was used instead of a cane. In Scotland, a leather band with a towsi handle, used for striking the hands, was a universal weapon in public schools, but some private schools preferred the cane.
Corporal punishment is now prohibited in all European countries. Poland was the first to abandon them (1783), and later this measure was outlawed by the Netherlands (1920), Germany (1993), Greece (in primary schools since 1998, in secondary schools - since 2005), Great Britain (1987), Italy (1928), Spain (1985), Austria (1976).
Poland was the first to ban corporal punishment in schools - in 1783
Now in Europe parents are punished for misdeeds rather than children. So, in Great Britain judicial practice a precedent was introduced when married couple appeared in court for extra holidays for children. Parents took their sons on a week-long vacation to Greece in study time. Now they face a fine of two thousand pounds and 3 months in prison. Filed in court local authorities, arguing that the couple had deprived their children of their right to education. And in France, parents who pick up their children from school too late face fines. The authorities decided to resort to such measures after complaints from teachers who, together with their students, were forced to wait for hours for late parents.
Harsh morals still reign in Africa. In Namibia, despite a ban from the Minister of Education, offending children must stand still under a tree with a wasp's nest. In Liberia and Kenya they use the whip.
In Asia, corporal punishment has already been abolished in some countries (Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines), and in some places it is still practiced. In China, all corporal punishment was banned after the 1949 revolution. In practice, in some schools, students are caned.
In Myanmar, beating is practiced despite the government ban. Students are caned on the buttocks, calves or hands in front of the class. Other forms of corporal punishment in schools include squatting with arms crossed and ears pulled, kneeling or sitting on a bench. The usual reasons are conversations in class, unfulfilled homework, mistakes, fights and absenteeism.
In Malaysia, caning is a common form of discipline.
In Malaysia, caning is a common form of discipline. By law it can only be applied to boys, but the idea of introducing the same punishments for girls has been discussed in lately. Girls are asked to be hit on the hands, while boys are usually hit on the buttocks through their trousers.
In Singapore, corporal punishment is legal (for boys only) and is fully approved by the government to maintain strict discipline. Only light rattan cane can be used. Punishment should take place in a formal ceremony after a decision is made by the school management, not by the teacher in the classroom. The Department of Education has set a maximum of six strikes per misdemeanor.
IN South Korea Corporal punishment is legal and widely used. Boys and girls are equally often punished by teachers for any offense at school. Government guidelines are that the cane should not be thicker than 1.5 cm in diameter and the number of blows should not exceed 10. Such punishments are usually carried out in a classroom or corridor in the presence of other students. Simultaneous punishments for several students are common, and sometimes the entire class is punished for one student. Common reasons for corporal punishment include making mistakes on homework, talking in class, or getting a bad grade on an exam.
In South Korea, teachers sometimes beat the entire class for one student.
In Japan, in addition to the classic beating with bamboo, there were even more terrible punishments: standing with a porcelain cup on your head, straightening one leg at a right angle to your body, and lying between two stools, holding onto them only with your palms and toes.
In India there is no school corporal punishment in the Western sense. It is believed that school corporal punishment should not be confused with ordinary beatings, when a teacher attacks a student in a sudden outburst of rage, which is not corporal punishment, but cruelty. India's Supreme Court has banned this type of cruelty in schools since 2000, and most states have said they will enforce the ban, although enforcement has been slow.
Punishment and beating from angry teacher shared in India
In Pakistan, if you are two minutes late to class, you are forced to read the Koran for 8 hours. In Nepal, the most terrible punishment is when a boy is dressed in a woman's dress and, depending on the degree of offense, is forced to wear it for one to five days.
In the United States, corporal punishment is not prohibited in all states. Supporters of physical pressure on children remain mainly in the south of the country. Corporal punishment in American schools is carried out by hitting students on the buttocks with a wooden paddle made specifically for this purpose. Most public schools have detailed rules by which punishment ceremonies are conducted, and in some cases these rules are printed in the school manuals for students and their parents.
IN South America The treatment of children today is generally humane. Basically, corporal punishment is prohibited, and the maximum that awaits a naughty schoolchild in Brazil, for example, is a ban on games during recess. And in Argentina, where physical punishment was practiced until the 1980s, the instruments of pain were slaps to the face.