We are surprised and appalled to see that someone should come out of the primeval swamp to suggest the return of physical punishment in schools (“One in five teachers wants the cane back”, TES, October 3).Do teachers who support such an anachronism expect to help pupils to learn acceptable behaviour, or do they suppose they can bully them into it?
It is ironic that this article appeared on the same day as the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a critical report with more than 120 recommendations to the UK Government. One of these is to “ensure that corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited in schools and all other institutions and forms of alternative care throughout the United Kingdom and in the overseas territories and crown dependencies”.
Dr Artemi Sakellariadis, Director, Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, Bristol.
