A lesson in school discipline

Yesterday I gave you a glimpse at the psyche of an English schoolmaster in the 1930s. Let’s have a look at what he has to say about discipline at school. First, the gravest crime of them all:

Only with regard to one sin must a Headmaster admit no compromise – lust… bodily, sexual lust. When such becomes overt, in almost all cases it is a vice of some standing, not a sudden fall. …The vice is so infectious, so emphatically the one sin which uniquely and almost solely destroys, that always when it is known to others, and generally when it is not known, the offender must be expelled.”

I hope you’re ashamed of yourself, there in the back row.

But what about lesser crimes, the ones that don’t concern the terrible sin of lust?

“Have you sacrificed that worthy instrument, the cane, to the Moloch of a false humanitarianism which professes to rule by means of a sense of honour that is still in the course of formation? Then remember that bad teachers use it frequently, passionately or – never. The perfect teacher who never needs it does not exist.

Rejoice not, O misguided child,
That thou art seldom smacked:
The world’s hard hand will soon supply
All that thy mother lacked.”

All you aspiring educators, I hope you’re taking notes. It’s a bad teacher who never canes, I hope we’re all clear on that.