Long ago, the general public used to bestow to each teacher the right to act in loco parentis, and under certain conditions to administer corporal punishment. The Criminal Code, in Section 280, entrenched such principles by making it lawful for “….a schoolmaster or master to use, by way of correction towards a child, pupil, or apprentice under his care, such force as is reasonable under the circumstances.” Courts of law went further in some cases for teachers to override the authority of the parents. This applied particularly in matters of safety or thresholds of behaviour that some parents may have tolerated, but bordered on intolerable or risky for others.
As time went by, the use of the cane was restricted to the headmaster and to one other teacher, who was given special permission by the minister of the day. As schools became larger and buildings separated, the head teacher was allowed to delegate, with ministerial permission, to a number of teachers. While the cane or the threat of it was sometimes used as a pedagogical motivator, it was supposed to be used only as a last resort for ‘offences against morality, for gross impertinence and for wilful and persistent disobedience’. Towards the demise of its use, Principals were advised to record only one of these three descriptors in the Corporal Punishment Register when the misdemeanour was committed. Prior to this, the actual crime was recorded as this list from the history of Maroon State School shows:
Annoying little girl 5 strokes
Kicking a boy 2 strokes
Laziness in school 6 strokes
Sulking 4 strokes
Throwing water over girl 4 strokes
Swinging on back of truck 1 stroke
After some agitation in the 1930s, female pupils were exempted from corporal punishment, only one school cane could be kept [out of sight], and the cane could not be used for failure or inability to learn. The Register had to be up-to-date and accurate.
The general public was accepting of these conditions for some decades. Then the 1960s saw greater questioning of all sorts of authoritative control; especially those aspects of social control that seemed to be too aggressive and, in this period, the Queensland Teachers Union was called upon for more legal assistance to teachers in cases involving corporal punishment than it ever had previously.
The President of the Queensland Teachers Union, Ray Costello [1969-72] was frequently called upon to comment in the press. Ironically, he was opposed to the use of corporal punishment. To overcome the general media impression that teachers were sadistic wielders of the birch, they sang Ray Kelley’s ditty that provoked inverse support for prevailing points of view.
THE RAY COSTELLO THEME
[Tune: Vive la Compagnie]
Let every good teacher now take up his cane -
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
Just keep it in use and you keep yourself sane -
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
Crack ‘em and smack ‘em and whack ‘em again,
Slap ‘em and rap ‘em and strap ‘em again,
Belt ‘em and welt ‘em,
Welt ‘em and belt ‘em,
Thrash ‘em and lash ‘em again!
Detention is never the right thing to do.
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
The snag is, you have to detain yourself too.
CORPORALPUNISHMENT!
Crack ‘em…….
Withholding a privilege fails to impress -
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
When kids for the privilege couldn’t care less -
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
Crack ‘em…………
So here’s to the cane and the strop and the knout -
CORPORALPUNISHMENT!
If ever they go, then it’s time to get out -
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!
Crack ‘em………….
The QTU and the Minister were on the same wave-length through to 1979 on the maintenance of the status quo; and opposition within teacher ranks came slowly after the Australian Teachers Federation, in 1974, called for the ‘… establishment of a code of practice which would lead to the elimination of corporal punishment in schools.’ The QTU and QCSSO [Queensland Council of State School Organisations] maintained that the root causes of the disposition towards the use of the cane in school should also be eliminated at the same time as its use, named as: size of school, over-large classes, irrelevance of some aspects of schooling leading to pupil boredom, transition from primary to secondary schooling, lack of adequate teacher training and insufficient opportunities for purposeful preparation. These issues were not addressed.
During these years of discourse there were many who supported the continuation of corporal punishment and called for the supply of cane from the lawyer-vine to be issued with the annual stock. It had once been listed on the school stock requisition, disappearing from the list of items in the 1950s. Their cause is espoused in the parody below.
Although a group of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education was formed in 1975, generally teacher and parents’ larger organisations favoured the status quo for quite some time. At its annual conference in the same year, QCSSO confirmed its support for existing regulations. By 1979, the tempo had changed and the association sought changes. In 1980, the Education Department published Eddie Clarke’s document, Corporal punishment in Queensland State Schools. Indeed, the literature on the use of the cane in schools is surprisingly large. It is worth a visit to Education Queensland’s website : http//educationqld.gov.au/library/edhistory/topics/corporal/
By 1992 there was a consensus that the general policies of the Department and the Government were incompatible with the use of corporal punishment and it was abolished at the beginning of 1995.
LAY OF THE LOST LAWYER
[Tune: "There is Nothing Like a Dame" from "South Pacific"]
We got heaps of coloured rods, we got piles of rubber mats,
We got overhead projectors, we got thises, we got thats,
We got cute machines for teaching how to read and how to spell…
What ain’t we got ? YOU KNOW DARN WELL!
What we want Supply and Stores to send us,
Soon would make a difference quite tremendous:
There is nothing like the cane, nothing in the world;
There is nothing, it is plain, that is anything like the cane!
We got boxes full of chalk, we got pencils by the score,
We got copy-books aplenty, we got compo books galore,
We got dozens of devices for expanding little brains…..
What ain’t we got? We ain’t got CANES!
Lots of teaching aids are excellent, but brother
There is one particular aid that is nothing whatsoever in any
way shape or form like any other!
There is nothing like the cane, nothing in the world:
There is pleasure in the pain that you mete with a well-worn cane!
We got power to suggest, we got power to persuade,
We got power to co-operate, collaborate and aid,
We got power to encourage every budding plant to flower…..
What ain’t we got? We ain’t got POWER!
What we need’s the good old-style cor-rective;
One that’s very simple but ef-fective:
There is nothing like the cane, nothing in the world;
What a boon to have a bane that’s as terrible as the cane
We feel cabined, we feel cribbed, we feel thwarted and confined,
We feel sore that never more can we be cruel to be kind,
We feel baited and frustrated, we feel so misunderstood…..
What don’t we feel? We don’t feel GOOD!
What we want’s that marvellous in-vention
Guaranteed to bring relief from tension:
There is nothing like the cane, nothing in the world;
Nothing else can ease the strain`like some exercise with the cane!
He may get remedial reading, he may get remedial speech,
He may get remedial number work for maths beyond his reach;
There are still remedial measures that the little darling lacks:
What does he need? Remedial SMACKS!
Lib’rally apply it three times daily -
I’m referring to a stout shil-laly!
There is nothing like the cane, nothing in the world;
Nothing else can keep you sane like the therapy of the cane.
No, nothing acts like the cane, for nothing whacks like the cane;
Nothing swings like the cane and nothing stings like the cane;
Nothing checks like the cane, or corrects like the cane;
There ain’t a thing that’s wrong with any who teach
That can’t be cured by handing to each
A great big, barbarous, brutal, BYOOTIFUL cane!
