Crickhowell
Victorian school days
  Sarah gets a worse punishment  
 

The head teacher at Crickhowell British School in 1878 obviously thought that using the cane to punish children was the best way to get better behaviour.
When he writes in the school Log Book about giving pupils "one cut" it means one stroke from the cane.
(The entries below are in two parts because they are on two separate pages of the book).
"I forgot to make a note of the first time of using the rod since taking charge of this school. Benjamin Watkins had one slap on each hand last Wednesday for kissing Agnes Bennett".
Crickhowell British School
29th September 1874
26th August
1878
 School diary entry "Punished John Lewis, Arthur Morgan, Arthur King, and Sarah Davis, with one cut on the hand each for not doing their home lesson. The last mentioned refused to take the cut, but proceeded to leave the school, stating that I should not touch her, and that if I did she would tell her father. Thereupon I gave her several cuts on the back".
School diary entry
Drawing by
Rob Davies

So the young girl who didn't want one stroke from the teacher's cane on her hand got a number of strokes on her back instead !
Although there are lots of accounts in the old school records of misbehaving children being caned by teachers, there are hardly any references to parents complaining about it. It was just part of the school routine, and it didn't seem to put an end to bad behaviour !
Such as putting gunpowder on the school fire...

Bad behaviour, followed by punishment...

 
Caning
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