Anyone else spot the design flaw with this school dormitory, pictured in 1935?
See, pictures like this immediately make me imagine all of the girls in the dorm being ordered to get up and bend over the end of their beds to be caned for some mass outbreak of disobedience. But the room is too narrow, meaning that a master (or prefect) caning a girl bent over the end of her bed would be in serious danger of catching the girl bent over behind him with his backswing.
They’d presumably have had to punish the young ladies one side of the room at a time – all the girls on the right ordered to bend over to be caned in turn, whilst their friends covered their ears and tried not to contemplate their own impending thrashings. And then the girls on the left would be made to assume the position, whilst the other half of the room lay in freshly-punished misery.
I would think it better to be the first side of girls rather then the second. At least the first gets it over with and does not have to suffer the anticipation of their coming fate.
My, what cramped quarters! Positively tiny compared to the school in the most recent (?) BBC Jane Eyre, which was from roughly the same period.
The alternative to the two shifts would be to simply have the girls form a single line and cane each in turn at the end of the row of beds, with the next girl looking on in anticipation. Naturally the older girls would (unfairly) push the younger ones to the front of the line, hoping that a tired master/prefect would deliver their own strokes with less fervour.
Isn’t that why masters travel in packs, though? Oh well, better luck next time girls
I thought this might actually be a feature, rather than a bug. Getting one side with your backswing is very parsimonious.
But, my suggestion would be to have them bent over the ends of the bed on one side in pairs. The advantage of this is that you can use the cane on either bottom at random. Neither girl will know which is getting it just from the swish. (Except for the last stroke, I suppose.)
Of course, you could do this in a wider room, too. But you wouldn’t have such a great reason to justify it.
BTW, is that your thumbprint at the bottom of the comments area, Abel? If so, it gives new meaning to the term “out”!
I’ve been enjoying your blog posts this morning, but had to stop and comment to this one. I am not sure about the design flaw, but – this room is straight from my childhood fantasies. My fantasy was, that the girls who were to be punished at bedtime would be given some sign as they prepared for bed that evening, perhaps a note pinned to their pillow, and those girls must lay face down, covers down, bare bottom exposed with night gown lifted. The rest were able to be fully under the covers but eyes buried firmly into their pillows. Then the sounds of spanking and whimpering could be heard, starting at one end of the room and slowly getting closer and closer. Some nights I was the lucky girl who only listened, and other nights if I was feeling particularly naughty I was laying in my own bed panties down, nighty up – picturing myself in that room! Then the lights would switch off. So, this room, even with the design flaw, works just fine!
@Rich – pairing the girls up sounds like a great plan!
@Z – I love the idea of the girls turning up in the dorm to find a note on their pillows, never mind them having to wait as the sounds of whacking drew closer! Wonderful!