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| Linton
in Pictures |
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A History
of Linton
in Photographs
Available here |
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PUNISHMENTS
IN LINTON SCHOOLS IN VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN TIMES
The Linton National Church of England School was founded in
1840 and the first headmaster was Frederick Mutimer. He kept
a log book of daily events and surviving entries date from 1863.
The parents and pupils had to obey strict rules and schooling
had to be paid for until 1891. Several of the school laws (note
the term) in 1863 would be very useful today but no one would
dare to apply them!
Children in mid Victorian times came to school in an unruly
state and had to be disciplined. Bullying was not tolerated
at Linton and anyone found molesting their school fellows on
their way home was detained for 30 minutes after school for
a whole week. Lateness was punished on the same day and culprits
were put into detention for one hour during the lunch break.
Needless to say the parents had no say and were not informed.
If pupils complained to their parents they were likely to sustain
a beating.
Fighting in school was not tolerated and two boys at Linton
were banned for the rest of the term in November, 1863 for fighting
in the playground. If a class misbehaved the whole group were
kept behind for 30 minutes after school. Do not forget that
class sizes averaged 45 mixed age pupils with only one teacher
and no helpers.
Absenteeism without the master’s permission led to expulsion
or a fine of one month’s fees. Perhaps this could be tried
today to curb unauthorised absence taken for holidays in term
time!
A tiny minority of pupils still misbehaved in class but the
majority were deterred from joining them by the harsh range
of punishments in the Linton school’s armoury. John Starling
resisted a teacher who tried to remove him from the class and
so the teacher pushed his head as hard as possible into a desk
top. This was allowed!
Teachers could box ears, hit most parts of the body, pull hair,
publicly humiliate and throw objects at lazy or disobedient
children. Not surprisingly, within a few years Linton school
was a very calm place and reports of Her Majesty’s Inspectors
(HMI’s) usually complimented Linton on the good order
and excellent manners of its pupils.
The ultimate deterrent was the cane. Every school had to keep
a punishment book and the Linton and Abington books make interesting
reading. Caning was usually on the hand and both sexes were
punished in this way. Only boys were caned on the backside.
Linton school averaged about 100 canings a year before 1914
and then numbers fell to under 20 in the inter war period. However,
unofficial hitting was widespread and did not have to be recorded
or justified.
Abington school broke every local record. In 1908 there were
49 canings, in 1909 some 146 and in 1910 over 350! What went
wrong I have yet to find out but the most dangerous times for
a pupil to be at school seem to have been immediately after
a holiday break. |
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