The Vicar at Saint Hugh’s Church used her as an example many times. “If you are not sure what to do, go and see her, she’ll have probably done it before, she’s marvellous!” Her mummy, was at the very least, delighted! “Ohhh you clever girl Karen, you have made your Mummy so very proud. This Saturday, we are off to town you and I, we will go to Rushet’s Cafe on the High Street, and I’ll take you to your favourite bakers and get you a lovely cream cake to have after Sunday tea! Then my dear, we will go looking at uniforms and satchels. You are going to look lovely, you deserve the best….well done!” United States: TV news report (Mar 2014): A newly created school district in Tennessee decides to introduce corporal punishment.

Whatever the true explanation, the old adage of "cross me and you won't sit down for a week" had never felt closer to the truth. Of course it was now my duty to witness all the canings. My assistant, Maggie Thomas, approved heartily of the cane. It was her opinion that all girls under the age of twenty-one ought to be subject to the cane from someone, or indeed several someones. In her quiet way she included me in all that but I just smiled and ignored her and my punishment book remained my secret even though it only had the one lone caning in it. Mummy was a perfect product of the 1950’s. A dutiful housewife who had kept an excellent house since the day she married. Sadly her husband was no longer around, but stoically, with a stiff upper lip and a gallon of fortitude, she had carried on running the house, her home, with pride. Sophie had come to be rather fond of Thomas over the last few terms acting as his designated house tutor. There was a natural, easy rapport and she had begun this ploy as a tease to try and shake him out of his academic complacency. She had intended that her traditional crook handled school cane would act merely as a prop to give emphasis to her words. Perhaps an older or more experienced housemistress might have sensed a curious infatuation in his eyes, perhaps could have understood the allure of her authority, and might even have guessed just how much he longed to submissively bend to her every whim.This was a further bombshell – I’d never been told to take my trousers down for any punishment before. I just stood there transfixed, my heart in my mouth. I was definitely having a huge adrenalised reaction, and I froze like an animal caught in headlights. For the latest on trials and court cases from across Birmingham and the West Midlands, join BirminghamLive's Court Facebook group . United States: Two TV news reports, June 2012: A school district in Arkansas reintroduces corporal punishment after a lapse of several years. Brief amateur video of a public whipping for alcohol use in Timbuktu following takeover by Islamist militants (2012). A posed reconstruction of a child being spanked is shown over a phone interview in French with a psychologist who helped devise the spanking lessons for parents.

It was a fair question as I hadn't heard of any girls complaining and it seemed that with one girl he had gone too far and caned her. That really got my interest although there is no way on God's earth I would have allowed that fat pompous idiot to have caned me. Oh dear that does sound arrogant doesn't it but he was (and still is) an idiot and he is fat.Admiral the Lord Fisher, the father of the modern Royal Navy, banned corporal punishment before the First World War. The officer who beat Mavis Parker should have been court martialled. I think that even the most enthusiastic schoolmaster of the period would have considered 30 strokes excessive. The bare bottom says it all about the officer. Then another blow followed and more pain. I grunted again and curled my toes trying to keep still, being brave while being punished was of high importance at Lady Alice. United States: PBS TV interview (2011) (6 minutes) with Peter Moskos, who discusses his book advocating flogging as an optional replacement for imprisonment in certain cases. Mummy sat on the bed, and slid the slipper deftly under the pillow. Then turned a nervous, worried Karen to face her. “I told you quite plainly Karen, that if you were naughty at school, you would be punished at home.” As she did this she tugged the pyjama bottoms down, to land in a puddle at her daughters ankles.

A present-day British soldier is "sentenced" by his mates to a pants-down slippering (2007). It is a light-hearted affair, but a real punishment none the less.Almost as though it were a favourite pet, Miss Sternwood lightly and affectionately patted her cane, but for the time being left it lying on the desktop. At that moment the deputy head's phone rang. He answered it which gave us extra thinking time. It was then I remembered something that he'd said in assembly. According to him we were now 2nd Years and the senior pupils in that particular playground, and as such we were obliged to set a good example for the 1st Years. For goodness sake Attwood," she had exclaimed, as much in exasperation as annoyance. "You're a month past your eighteenth birthday, you'll be starting University in less than a year, probably living away from home. If you haven't developed a sense of motivation and self discipline by now, something is seriously wrong! Maybe you could at least try to show a little maturity? I don't suggest for one minute that academic success should be your only objective in life, but your exam results in a few months time will be a critical step for you. How much more motivation can you possibly need?" Her posture, leaning into what those familiar with fencing or other swordsmanship might have described as a slight forward lunge, kept the cane dead horizontal across the lower curve of his cheeks. In their slightly offset positions he mostly felt its pressure on his left side, but the whippy flex of the cane in full, high-speed motion would not spare his right cheek when the six strokes fell evenly across the width of his firm behind.