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Seminararbeit
Englisch

KHG, Bamberg

14 Punkte, 2013

Friederike K. ©
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Corporal Punishment in British society

“Prügeln oder nicht?”, “The man who gave John Major a trashing says it did him good”

Contents

1. Introduction to the topic of “Corporal punishment in British society

2. Comparison of the captions:

3. Analyzing and interpreting the articles’ content

3.1 “Prügeln oder nicht?”

3.2 “The man who gave John Major a trashing says it did him good”

4. Stylistic Devices

4.1 “Prügeln oder nicht?”

4.2 “The man who gave John Major a trashing says it did him good”

5. Comparison of the articles in content and stylistic devices

6. Personal Statement

7. Bibliography


1.     Introduction to the topic of “Corporal punishment in British society

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment“[1], Article five of the United Declaration of Human Rights. Great Britain accepted this document 1948 and signed it. But it seems like this rule affects only adults, not pupils. Because until the early 1990s, corporal punishment was a well-known sanction in England’s ‘public schools and until today parents are allowed to chasingaste their children if they don‘t behave right. This is the subject I want to attend to in my term paper. The corporal punishment against children and pupils and the aftermath for their life. I have chosen this topic, as I‘m very interested in the follow-up for the children that experienced corporal punishment, the reasons why teachers and parents have chosen to discipline their children or pupils in this way.

As we can see in the picture out of the movie “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, there are lots of hidden reasons why teachers and parents decide for corporal punishment. Like in the picture, there is one bright side, that stands for what people show in public and there’s also a dark side, which stands for the things that we try to hide and that influences us. In this case there is a big woman on the dark side that is beating the teacher, who is beating the pupil.

It’s like a chain reaction. There are a lot of open questions in context of this topic. Is the educational effect that it brings really so high that it‘s worth the pain of the kids? Is it right if people say that not beating the children and pupils is the reason for the high teen unemployment rate? If corporal punishment traumatizes people, how did our Grandparents handle that, with being normal now? For clearing these questions I‘ve chosen two articles out of newspapers, from different authors. By analysing and interpreting them, I hope to get a better understanding about the movements that the parents and the teachers had, the undesirable effects that the corporal punishment brings with it and the position that former beaten pupils represent.

The two texts are both from fall 1996 and were published in the German magazine “Die Zeit" and the English newspaper “The Times“.


2.     Comparison of the captions:

“Prügeln oder nicht?“, that‘s the topic of Reiner Lukyens article. It seems to be a simple question, that can be answered with “Yes“ or “No“. But if we take a closer look at this subject, we quickly have to understand that it‘s - contrary to expectations - a very profound matter with a lot of glib factors.

It‘s also a question that shows the mentality of a person or a society. Beating children is a sign of a more old-fashion society because corporal punishment to children is also used in the bible. It‘s a fact that a lot of religious groups- especially in the US- stand behind the idea that punishment is a good way of education. Also the ignorance of latest psychological studies, where the effect of beating is denied shows that this society relies on the morals that they had adopted from their parents.

Not beating children suggest modern society. People of this society are aware of statistics that deny the punishment. By this way of liberal thinking these people make sure that they do not only adopt old values and traditions, but think about them and their reliability. Within the question there‘s an antitheses, that makes the differences between the two parties even clearer.

You can only decide for one side! 

“The man who gave John Major a trashing says it did him good“; with this caption the authors sum up the content of the text. It‘s an indirect speech, so it doesn‘t show the author‘s view. The attention is attracted because of “John Major“. Anybody is interested in the private life of a prime minister and how he became so influential.

This leads again to the question if physical punishment is good for children or not. The two sides of course say that their way of educating a child is the best, but in the end it‘s a decision that every citizen has to clarify by voting for a certain party.

3.     Analyzing and interpreting the articles’ content

3.1 “Prügeln oder nicht?”

 “Ein Aufatmen durchs Land ging“ (l. 1) If someone is breathing out loud it‘s often a sign of alleviation. But we don‘t know who is assuaged and why. And it goes through the whole country, so a lot of people apparently were frightened. But why? There‘s also the saying that there were “Selbstzweifeln und Identitätskrisen“ (l. 2) in the British middle class.

So there might be doubt if what they were doing is right and maybe they were also ashamed of themselves. But all these sorrows are now over, as Tony Blair admits that sometimes he couldn‘t stop himself from hitting. Tony Blair is the leader of the Labor Party. “Lichtheld” (l. 2) is how he’s called. Someone nearly without mistakes, close to his people, the hero of the typical British worker.

And now he came even closer to the bourgeoisie by clearing the question about the punishment at home. “sich [ .] schämen, dass der [ .] Geduldsfaden riss” (ll. 6). This passage makes clear which point of view the author represents. His opinion is that parents should control themselves better when their children don’t behave the way they should. For him trashing, caning and beating is not a way of education, but a result of parents with a lack of self-control.

They advance the education hoping everyone will believe that they only want the best for the child, instead of admitting that they only search for the easiest way to keep the kids calm. “Vorübergehend wurde es in trendbewußten Kreisen sogar zu Mode, sich zum gelegentlichen Klapsen zu bekennen.” (ll. 7) Or they try to make it fashionable. A cane in the hand replaces the new Chanel Couture? Probably not, it’s still just a try to make the trashing look nicer. “Hat uns ja auch nicht geschadet” (ll. 8) is an excuse. These three kinds of excuses show that the thrashers still have doubts about what they do. “Weinpartys in dem Nordlondoner Stadtteil, in dem die Blairs wohnen, sind der Ort an dem der Mittelstand seine Tabus und Lebensregeln definiert”(ll. 10). This sentence is the answer how those doubts are suppressed.

But in this case there was a connection between both and so the European commission for human rights sues Great Britain. 

“Ein von Europa verfügtes Totalverbot des Klapses droht” (l. 17) The prohibition comes from Europe, it’s a big force and Britain can’t ignore it. Smacking is an understatement; it stands for beating and caning, for violence against children. “Klapsende Weingäste [ .] menschenrechtsverachtende Sünder” (ll. 17) This contrast stresses the argument that parents do not only smack their children, but they thrash them until they have bruises and have to be visited by a doctor.

No one would sue against a smacking parent; there must have been real wounds so that Europe can talk about contempt of the human rights. “Malträtierte” (l. 20) with this word the author accuses the father to abuse the child of his wife. It’s a sign of real violence against this boy, probably more than necessary. “Billigung der Mutter” (ll. 20), the mother is not interested in her boy; it’s out of her business what happens to him.

We don’t know if she is okay with the way her new husband treats her child, but it seems like she is inferior to her man. Maybe he also uses violence against his wife and she is just so afraid of him that she rather says nothing instead of helping her son and also gets trashed. The boy was beaten so hard that he had “Striemen auf Beinen und Hintern” (l. 22). Stripe is evidence that the man was using a belt for castigating.

A belt is made out of leather and it can be used without a hurting hand afterword’s. There is also the method by holding the belt on the leather end and let the buckle bite the flesh of the child. “Züchtigungen im Zeitraum einer Woche” (l. 23), the severe punishment was not an affect, but a planned chastise. “Mit angemessenen Züchtigungsmitteln” (l. 26) only says that the stepfather was using the legal things for trashing the boy, but nobody was attending to the degree of the wounds and bruises. “Anonymität” (l.28) is a sign that cases like this one can happen to anyone.

Any happy family can be like this behind closed doors, if the legal punishment won’t be prohibited. “Fragementierte Familie” (l.28) the family is not a real family anymore; it’s a broken family because of all the things that took place. There is no love or trust and no coherence. This family is definitely not a real family anymore. “Skizzenhafte Umrisse” (l. 29) means that no outsider knows what really happened.

The word “entluden” (l. 31) clarifies that there were lots of accrued emotions that now all came out, so there must have been lots of trouble and fights in-between this broken family. “Recht und Unrecht” (l. 32) is like black and white. You have to decide for one side. Good or Bad. It doesn’t leave space for any attitudes between. If you’re not in favor of the punishment you’re against it! With the sentence “Wehtun als Erziehungsmittel” (l. 32) Luyken shows the side that he belongs to.

Against! Pro-Punishment would not highlight the fact that it inflicts pain to the pupils and children. They would rather emphasize that it’s authoritative and it demonstrates abuttals. A “Gewissenskonflikt” (l. 34) is there in that the parents are not really sure if it’s better to use physical educational methods or be one of the non-beating liberals. This points out the different mentality of the generations.

On the one hand there is the old fashioned way, with a lot of discipline and on the other hand there is the more liberal way, where they place value on to the feelings and emotions of the child. “Das Gestern zur guten, alten Zeit zu mutieren beginnt” (ll. 34) shows that the adults nowadays start to be melancholic about their childhood. In their memory everything was better, even the manners.

That might be the reason why they start being shocked about the behavior of the youngsters. “Angeblich selbstverständlichen Umgangsformen und Höflichkeiten” (ll. 35) reflects the thoughts of the grown-ups. They start thinking that their good manners also came from the corporal punishment, that’s why lots of them are about to use them again. “Prügelstrafe und [ .] Rohrstock [als] Symbole der Grausamkeit” (ll. 37) points out that the author is definitely against physical punishment.

In the era of the “viktorianischen Englands” (l. 38) there were the first free schools for all children, given by the government. But there was still a price they had to pay: Full acceptance with all the things that they were doing to their youngsters. “Lebenslanges Traumata“(ll. 38) is also often the result after being in a war. Students and children that have witnessed corporal punishment are as adults often as traumatized as soldiers after a war.

Is this what parents and teachers wanted to achieve? It‘s also a fact that people who were stroke in their childhood often do the same things to their own children. “In Public Schools groß gewordenen Ober- und Mittelschicht“ (l. 39). Public Schools are only for the wealthy minority, the parents want their children to become as successful as they are by all available means.

Including hard physical punishment. When you hear “Tales of Childhood”(l. 41) ,you think of stories from the court, the kindergarten, the elementary school, happy tales with friends and a lot of fun. What you don‘t think of is chastisement. 

But Robert Dahl doesn‘t only describe that in his books, he talks about “rituelle Züchtigung“(l. 41), what means that there was often no reason behind the caning. It was more a ritual for the teachers or the parents to calm down. There were no thoughts about a good education or the emotions and feelings of the students.

Maybe inflicting pain to defenseless little boys was the alternative to sex. Sex gives power, force and self-confidence, the fact that the cleric had sworn the vow of chastity leaves him no other possibility than to show the lust to his students. With canes, belts, paddles etc. There was “Methodik” (l. 43) behind it. What shows us that it wasn‘t a reaction of the boy‘s bad behavior, it seems like the teachers and principals have fun doing it, so they search for reasons to punish their inferior. “Hemmunslose Züchtigung[en]“(l. 44) makes clear that the pupils often were bashed too hard and without a proper reason.

If there was the will to let steam off and britches, the parents and teachers always found a behavior that must be punished. So often were the whippings only a result of little mistakes the children made and parents or teachers that were frustrated. And because of too hard punishment a boy became “lebenslanger Bettnässer“(l. 45). This child was beaten so hard that he has impairment for his whole life.

But this only alludes to kids. What about teenagers and young adults? Well, he answers this question with the folloing quote: “ [ .] aber wenn ein Junge mit zwölf Jahren immer noch nicht gelernt hat, da[ss] man Omi nicht ihre Geldbörse klaut, verdient er eine öffentliche Züchtigung mit der Weidenrute.“(l. 50). This shows that in his opinion only the corporal punishment of Baby’s, toddlers and children is inappropriate, but teenagers that still haven‘t learned to behave can definitly be chasten.

Not only that, for him they should even be punished in public, so the shame will be even bigger for the evildoer. But maybe for McClude it‘s not about the age and more about how bad the depravation was. In a Scottish elementary school the same topic was discussed and they came to a very similar result: “Wenn einer mit dem Messer auf seinen  Bruder losgeht, verdient er eine gute Tracht Prügel.

Auch wenn er erst neun Jahre alt ist“ (ll. 52) ! This makes clear that already in this young age, children are coined by their parents and their opinion. It shows that the corporal punishment at home or in school won‘t stop itself, because it‘s like a tradition given from generation to generation, the only way to curtail the violence against children is a law that definitly prohibits the punishment ! 

Instead of thinking about the reason why the boys denied to do this homework he mulish decided to cane them. In the end he asserts that the kids “behaved better“(l. 7). But if we would solve political protests in the same way, with violence, how would this be called ? - Dictatorship. How should young people learn, understand and support the democratic system if they haven‘t even experienced it ? For Hubert Walker the situation is clear “I agree with corporal punishment, I think it should be brought back“(ll. 7), of course it‘s a different generation, but shouldn‘t pupils learn about the free will and how to stand up for one‘s beliefs without violence.

How should they learn it if they were only suppressed in school ? The corporal punishment is an easy way for teachers to control the class, but the easy way is often not the best, also in this case. Hubert Walker has also a solution for that: “[Corporal punishment should not] be used willy-nilly, but rather via the headmaster in moderation“(ll. 8). So a person in a higher position should be the only one that is allowed to use physical violence to the children.

Blenkinsop was called “Champion of the Wonder Horse because of the size of his teeth“(ll. 23) by his pupils. Back in time when he was also a student, his classmates probably had nicknames like this one for him, too. Likely the childhood and the time as pupil and student weren‘t very rosy for him, so after finishing and quitting school he decided to come back, now on the other side of the teacher‘s desk.

His intentions could have been only the best, but there‘s also the chance that Blenkinsop never really left school in his mind and searched a way to handle his school memory’s, by trashing the students that are essentially the same as the ones that made fun of him his whole school time. Gillian Shephard stands behind Blenkinsop and Walker. She claimed to “reintroduce the cane“(l. 12), even though that‘s against the Cabinets ‘policy.

She was “rebuked by“(l. 11) John Major. This shows that, Major is against the corporal punishment in schools, maybe because of the things he went through as a pupil and the experiences he made. He had to deal with a lot of shrewd affairs, for example Hubert Walker, who declares in opposition to his former pupils that “they had only received only one [stroke] each“(ll. 6), they remember six strokes each.

Pupils should not follow their own thoughts and beliefs, in contrast they were supposed to follow the stream. The teachers were there to lead the young people in the right direction and if they denied it must be done with force. But how are teachers nowadays able to assert their authority where the law bans the bastinado at schools? Not a bit, at least that‘s the opinion of Mr.

Walker. “At present there is no sanction. [ .] In my day my wife and mother could go hoot and walk in the dark and now they couldn‘t“(ll. 16). It might be right that there are “No-Go-Areas“ where you better not be at night, especially as a woman, but assign blame only to the schools is wrong, rather the fact that there are lots of unemployed teenagers and parents as the reason of the globalization should be considered.

With the number of unemployed people also the number of criminals is rising. Not only the former middle class worker, whose job now is done by a 14 year old girl in India for only the quarter of his wage, but also the immigrant who wasn‘t able to learn the language without state aid and now can‘t find a job are potential criminals that can be found in the No-Go-Areas.

As a result these kids have more unused power at the end of the day and start to rebel against teachers and parents. These facts do also need to get recognized. Beating is not the solution for everything, it‘s only one piece in a big puzzle. So Hubert Walkers assumption that a cane or a paddle in school can be denied. According to Walkers opinion John Major “failed to show much leadership potential when he was his pupil“(ll. 25), what shows how big the requirements of this teacher are.

Expecting that a pupil needs to have leadership qualities like an adult is unrealistic. The schools and Walkers expectations are too high to come up with them. “Caning was more moderate than the discipline of his [Hubert Walkers] own childhood“(l. 32) shows that with the change of the generation there‘s also a change of the moral concept. Walker tells the authors that his grandfather had “a strap hanging beside the fireplace“(l. 33).

This kind of physical punishment is what‘s cruel for Hubert Walker, he was afraid of the leather strap and didn‘t want to use it on his children or pupils because of the experiences he made. The idea of corporal punishment is not what he´s against, but he decided to rather take the cane for it. His grandfather used to use it “if you stepped out of line“(ll. 33). If you don‘t break rules or checkout abuttals as a child you will do it as an adult, and that‘s often not innocuous.

The pupils tried to cover their blame and their abasement by making it appear as something special. This downplaying is a way of ousting the bad memories of their school time, so that they don’t need to confront their selves with the traumata’s they went through. This statement shows that Major wasn‘t just a frightened, weak child, but that also his other classmates now have problems with their past.

They just handle it in a different way. “John Major must have kept his head down if he only got caned once“(ll. 37) was the other statement that his classmate made. This provides an insight into the system that commanded the pupils. If you don‘t get beaten too often, you‘re a softy. This additional pressure made it hardly possible to behave right. If you‘re against the teacher, he will trash you, if you keep your head down, your classmates will trash you mentally.

It‘s a catch-22 and you cannot escape. You have to decide between physical or mental abasement. 

Another of Mr. Major‘s former classmates said about him: “I‘m not surprised that he has forgotten all about the beating and the school. [ .] He got on in life after he left“(l. 42). This last sentence shows the hole dimension of what corporal punishment does with pupils, they don‘t want to remember their childhood and their time as teenagers.


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