A time for reflection
By Clarissa
It was a task she had got used to over the years: the end-of-term review of the Punishment Book. In fact, it was the last task she completed before writing the girls’ reports.
Miss Svenson leant down and retrieved a leather-bound book from a bottom drawer of her desk. “Here we go again” she thought to herself as she thumbed through the entries. Here was the catalogue of punishments, and misdemeanours. Here were the slipperings, the strappings, the junior and senior canings; here the hand spankings and, on occasion, the dressings downs. Here were the records of insolence, smoking and going out-of-bounds. Here were details of names, and forms.
Looking through the book, she was pleased to note that, for the most part, pupils had not reoffended. Of course, there were always exceptions: Miranda Spears sprang immediately to mind.
Miss Svenson closed the book and picked up a file that was sitting on her blotter: here were the lines and essays she had set as punishment during term. She leafed carefully through until she came to a thin sheaf of blue paper, pinned with a paper clip. She slipped off the clip and started to read:
‘The Meaning of Humiliation’ by Miranda Spears, Upper V
Humiliation is about power, and control. Generally speaking, humiliation is inflicted by those in a position of authority upon those in a lesser position: so the teacher to the school girl, the policeman to the scallywag, the master to the servant. Of course, this is not always the case. The school girl can humiliate the teacher, even perhaps if this was not her intention: if the teacher feels humiliated, then she is, and the action of the school girl is wrong.
But is inflicting humiliation always wrong, or is moral relativism at work? The teacher, for example, will argue that humiliating the school girl is for her own good, and will provide some sort of ‘lesson’. That insisting a girl bends over, exposing her sometimes bared bottom, and submitting to a dose of the strap or the cane without recourse to complaint will necessarily improve her behaviour. Or will it just inspire resentment?
Miss Svenson pinned the papers hurriedly back together and reinserted them in the file. The spurt of anger she had felt when she had first read the essay came back to her: how dare the girl call into question her methods – it was more than insolent. She had thought about bringing her in for a firm talking to, at the very least. But then she had thought better of it: the essay was well written and reasoned, and had been submitted on time. Miss Svenson shook her head, then looked down at her hands; the hands that had inflicted so many spankings on naughty girls’ bottoms. She then retrieved a small compact mirror from the desk and looked for a moment at her face: no, she had no doubt, her methods and motivations were sound; still, she supposed, it didn’t hurt to check once in a while.