CRIME & PUNISHMENT

 Malcolm Rigg’s memory of “Titch” Schofield caning a class because of their football allegiances caused me to think about “Crime & Punishment” in JCS.

 “Titch” caned a lot. Out of the 30 odd classes I had with him in 1A woodwork, I must have been caned in about 20 of them. Some were for “misdemeanours” he saw like having a hand in front of a chisel blade, but others appeared to be at his whim. One week he started the class by asking the date: “13^th, sir” we all said. “Ah 13^th unlucky for some. Line up here”. We did - he caned us all. Another day happened to be the 26^th; so we got two strokes each, as it was “doubly unlucky.” 

“Titch” was also the cause of a number of us being caned by Mr Hopwood for arguing with the teacher i.e. Mr Schofield. It was like this: Mr McKenna was off sick; Mr Schofield took his literature class and decided to do Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha”. So far so good. Some time during the class we had managed to include Pocahontas as well as Hiawatha. “Titch” calmly states, “Pocahontas and Hiawatha were Indian braves”. Some of us say, “No Pocahontas was a squaw” – “Titch” is adamant that “he is a man”. We continue to argue. “Titch” eventually sends about six of us out of the room to stand outside the headmaster’s office.  Mr Hopwood comes out asks why we are there and then consults Mr Schofield. Mr Hopwood gives us the cane. 

The regular canings by “Titch” and some others meant some of us became blasé about it. In fact you got called names by some of the other boys, if you had not been caned for a long time. This was happening to me when in 4G. Then, one day rushing to a class, as only a teenage boy can, Mr McKenna behind me “CAVALIER come here”. “Why were you running down the corridor?” he asked; I stuttered, “So I wont be late for class”. “Well you will be now – two strokes for breaking school rules”. Out came the cane from the staff room and two strokes were administered. Mr McKenna was a little bemused when I walked away with a smile on my face – Dave Laurie and Billy Rounce had walked by while I was being caned and they would report to the class – the name calling stopped. 

I do not believe that caning harmed me in any way, but it did not make me any better than I was – I still ran down the corridors when I needed to. I was caned twice for smoking, but did not give up until I was 27, which was rather a delayed reaction to the caning!

 My father’s reaction to caning was, “You must have deserved it”. His reaction to an excessive “lines” punishment was to write to Mr Hopwood and complain. The situation was I was given 100 lines by a prefect, I cannot remember why. As was usual lines issued by prefects were about 3 or 4 lines long when hand written on foolscap. I did not do them. Prefect doubles them to 200 lines. I still did not do them. Doubled again to 400 I decided to do them – Sunday night before they had to be in. Dad sees me doing them and asks what I was doing. He writes to Mr Hopwood. The gist of the letter was to say 400 lines was excessive and meaningless, and why had the school not informed him when I had failed to do the first punishment of 100 lines? 

Which brings me to the ultimate punishment the school could have given me – tell my parents.