The Caning Headmistress

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The old furniture was far heavier than it looked and she patiently waited as he half lifted and half slid them up to the wall. His fingers trembled against his blazer buttons before he folded it neatly across the chair seats and turned to face Miss Sternwood. At thirty-five years of age she could still clearly remember the corridors of Saint Frances and the dark wood paneling outside the headmistress's study. It stretched from the dull parquet floor to around shoulder height, whereupon it gave way to insipid magnolia paint and windows that were set high in the walls, requiring the use of a hooked wooden pole to open and close their spring loaded catches. Should you fail to fulfill your potential and dissapoint Aunty Judy or your mother, then you are likely to find yourself over her knee. Her hand spankings are legendary and it is to be hoped that would be sufficient to curb your errant ways.

Taking up her cane by the inside of its perfectly rounded crook handle, she stood, gently flexing it before running her fingers along its smooth length. Cool to her fingertips, it was carefully sanded at each joint and slightly rounded at the tip. Corpun file 12237 at www.corpun.com Northwich Guardian, Cheshire, 18 November 1976 Editorial Responsibility of headship

And with those words, I started slippering him. I dealt out the strokes slow and methodically, alternating cheeks. By the fourth one, the boy was already sobbing, but he took his thrashing without interference.

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.It didn't make me bitter, and I didn't come away with a chip on my shoulder about the world. I just thought those are the rules and that's what happens when I break them."

I took the punishment book out of my desk and placed it on top of it. Then I turned to the implements that were traditionally used at my office. The three canes, junior, senior and a straight-ended, short nursery cane, were at their place in a cupboard. My heavy, rubber-soled plimsoll resided in its desk drawer, from where I took it and placed it on my desk. The wooden ruler already lay there. I felt the cane touch again, though this time the flesh was as tender and as sensitive as I could imagine it being. I flinched again. On a coffee table in the classically Georgian front room, there was a jug of water and two glasses. She poured two glasses and handed me one. She sat down in an armchair.The sports field she overlooked was almost deserted, just a couple of late stragglers taking a shortcut from Mainschool towards the school driveway. To her left a tall beech tree partly obstructed one corner of her window and in that shaded area of glass she saw a ghostlike reflection of her room. My legs were trembling as I stretched myself over the desk. It was wide and I could only just hold onto the edge with my toes on the floor. I tried to make my grip as firm as possible and closed my eyes tight shut and waited. We are going to go through to the dining room, where I am going to administer four strokes of the cane to your seat, and three strokes of the strap to each of your hands.’ As I told her she would be punished now she whinced silently. However, she fully understood what i told her about the importance of being on time.

John Luke Wills!” i adressed the boy. “I read here that you were calling Miss Williams by some disgusting names?” She arrived home an hour late having to push her bicycle most of the three miles because she was in pain. Yes – I thought this may be the case…’ There was something enigmatic about her comment, and I didn’t understand.

The Ultimatum

Good morning, err, afternoon err …’ I stammered, suddenly confused as to the appropriate greeting for precisely noon. The headmistress used to stand at the window of her room high above the school gate watching. If she caught sight of a girl entering or leaving school without hat and gloves, someone was despatched immediately to take the culprit’s name. This was treated as disobedience. She was terribly stern - she would go to the cupboard, get the cane and ask what I had done. I would say 'nothing miss'.