ABSTRACT
When I was a child at primary school, which I like to think is not all that long ago, it was not uncommon for my fellow students to be sent to the head to be caned. At age seven I remember one of my teachers, for mild misdemeanours, used to make us stand on our desks whilst she slapped our legs with a ruler. It was not so much the slapping as the humiliation in front of our classmates that upset us. No one batted an eyelid then about what now would be regarded as unacceptable treatment of young children at school.
