Detention involved having to write an essay on a set topic. I just loved writing essays when I was at school. Still do actually. I bet that really surprises everyone!
Usually there was some choice over when to serve it. Generally, you’d have the option of attending the same day or the next school day. No Thursdays though, because Thursday was a half-day. We also had Saturday morning school, which many today would probably find hard to imagine.
Compared with corporal punishment, detention was viewed by some boys as the more civilised option. It avoided the immediate pain, humiliation, and anxiety associated with waiting for the cane. For academically inclined pupils, writing lines or essays could even feel relatively mild, especially if one enjoyed writing or reading.
Detention also gave masters the opportunity to impose a punishment that was corrective rather than purely punitive. Essays were often designed to make the offender reflect upon the rule broken, the importance of discipline, or the standards expected by the school. In theory at least, the punishment was intended to encourage thought and self-improvement.
For quieter or more studious boys, detention could sometimes seem preferable to public corporal punishment. One served the time, completed the work, and generally emerged without attracting too much further attention.
Against:
A detention went on your report and on your school record.
It was also time consuming. The detention lasted three-quarters of an hour following afternoon school. School finished at 16:10, detention started at 16:15, and finished at 17:00. So you effectively lost 50 minutes of your evening.
That loss of free time mattered greatly to boys involved in sports, clubs, hobbies, or long journeys home. Missing a bus or train could create additional problems with parents and travel arrangements. For boarders, detention cut into recreation time and social activities, making it particularly unpopular.
There was also a lingering sense of punishment that came with detention. Unlike the cane, which was swift and soon over, detention dragged on. The offender had to sit quietly under supervision while watching the clock move painfully slowly. For many boys, the boredom and frustration were almost worse than physical punishment.
Another disadvantage was that detention created a permanent written trace. A caning might quickly become yesterday’s news, but a detention recorded in reports could potentially affect how masters, parents, or future schools viewed a boy’s conduct and character.
One further factor to be considered when comparing punishments is that of status.
Getting the cane was, for many boys, a rite of passage, a test of courage, and a means of demonstrating manliness. Taking one’s medicine in a manly fashion was not considered undignified. Of course, it depended upon the offence. Some offences were regarded as far more acceptable than others, both by boys and masters.
I think that many boys feared the cane more in prospect than in retrospect. Most did not want a repeat. A few seemed to have found ways to take the cane often and without apparent trauma. Their status first rose, then gradually fell, as their canings grew in number. Increasingly, they came to be seen as stupid rather than brave.
There was often an odd mixture of fear, admiration, and competition surrounding corporal punishment in boys’ schools. A boy who accepted punishment stoically might earn considerable respect from his peers. Crying, pleading, or showing excessive fear could unfortunately attract ridicule in the harsh social environment that existed in many schools at the time.
Detention, by contrast, carried little prestige. It lacked the drama and ritual associated with a visit to the headmaster or senior master for the cane. While many boys preferred detention privately, publicly it was sometimes regarded as the less courageous option.
Attitudes towards both detention and corporal punishment varied greatly according to personality, age, school culture, and the severity of the offence. Some boys dreaded the cane above all else, while others hated the slow, dreary waste of time represented by detention. Masters too differed in their preferences. Some believed strongly in corporal punishment as a swift and effective deterrent, while others preferred written punishments or detentions as more educational and constructive methods of discipline.
Looking back now, it is clear that school discipline belonged to a very different era, with standards and expectations that would seem severe to many modern pupils and parents. Yet for those who experienced it, such systems formed a normal and accepted part of everyday school life.
