The morning test, revisited

I seem to keep coming back to my recent musings on the month-long training course to prepare for an exam, in which a girl gets chosen each morning to be tested, with a one-stroke tariff for each wrong answer.

Further twists and turns present themselves. In the morning test, when the girl made a mistake, the tutor would ask the rest of the class whether anyone knew the correct answer. It occurred to me that the one stroke might become two, if one of her fellows could answer the question. (They’d not want to get her into trouble, but wouldn’t be brave enough to admit their ignorance. Perhaps, then, the tutor would have to review each girl’s progress weekly, and her performance in these sessions would form part of the assessment?).

The tension at the start of the course bears consideration, too. The young women would know about the disciplinary regime before they enrolled, of course. But on that first morning, just after they’d met their fellow trainees – just after they’d met their tutor? Who’d be the first girl to be called up? What would the caning be like?

And a couple of weeks in: what if one girl still hadn’t been selected in the random morning draw? Imagine the relief at having been spared, clashing with the feeling of now being an outsider – hope that she would now be selected, to get it over with, to go through the same experience as her friends.

I imagine the girls being set an assignment. A detailed critique would be offered of their work, when the essays were handed back in class the following morning. For all girls, that is, except one: “Jennifer… We’ll discuss my feedback on your paper in private at the end of classes today.” A nervous wait would ensure, as she’d know that a private discussion meant she’d failed to make the grade, and would be accompanied by the order to “bend over and hold your ankles”. That she’d be caned was inevitable; the only question was the number of strokes, and leniency wasn’t usually on offer.

Last, but far from least, word might reach the tutor that a number of the girls had been seen out drinking, excessively, in the local pub one night – when they were supposed to be revising. He’d make them line up outside his study at the end of the following day. Call them in one-by-one. Ask whether they were serious about passing the exam, or whether he shouldn’t just send them straight home. And then cane them over his desk – punishment for their lax behaviour, instilling discipline for the remainder of the course.