When I was growing up in the midwest in the 1980s, corporal punishment in schools was still very much an option. At our school, it was the principal who wielded the paddle. Paddling was generally reserved for boys, but if a girl did something particularly egregious, she could also find herself on the receiving end […]

Your recent story The Smacked Bottom Exchange reminded me of my own attempts to engineer a caning after being teased by my mates. I was the only one of my group, at the age of 16 in 1968, who had never been caned and the others teased me incessantly about it. I was also the only one […]

Maman special feature As a special thank-you to all our visitors, we’re now making the first part of this fascinating historical study free to view for everyone. Anyone with an interest in cookery of any sort will have heard of the renowned Mrs Beeton. You may have heard less of her husband – a publisher […]

At the school I attended, there was a theoretical possibility of being spanked, but such punishments were rare. Even when given, they were mostly symbolic. However, the few cases in which I saw children being spanked are etched in my memory to this day. One of these incidents occurred in fifth grade, when I was […]

This story comes from the early 80s, when I was about 19 and fresh back from uni for the summer break. To earn a bit of pocket money, I had agreed to do some fence painting for my mother’s friend Brenda. Brenda was in her early 50s at the time, I should think. She had […]

Maman has received the following from a contributor named Uma, supposedly the results of a research project into the use of corporal punishment on children in India. We present it unedited and without comment regarding reliability or veracity. Role of Corporal Punishment at Home for School-going Kids in India For my Bachelor of Education project […]