--In my high school years I attended an English public school, where one rarely was punished beyond detention by Masters, but frequently punished (if incorrigible) with corporal punishment, in the form of a slipper across the buttocks, by senior prefects. I have heard every argument made against corporal punishment, but none are sufficient in their persuasion to change my mind from the disciplinary effects of a good painful reminder. I am not talking of maliciousness, nor sadism. The students attending the school are privileged. They attend to the proposition that they are there to learn, the required curriculum to enter a University for tertiary studies, or a Technical college for Trade studies, or one of the Military services. If they wish to not get an education, and work as labourers, then their parents may be Adviced that school fees are therefore wasted and this child would do better with the basics of a state school and the money saved.
--The discipline of the school was on the honour of the pupil. Each year had it's responsibilities, and discipline and structure of days was upheld and run by the senior boys. The Masters in their classrooms were the Master, and one was there to listen and learn. With politeness there was nothing one could not ask, and a Master would show one how to learn such. For extra-curriculum studies, an interested Master might loan his time to boys interested and studious. For instance : cross-country running, sailing, shooting targets, campanology, chess, boxing, tennis, badminton, extra-swimming, extra-bible studies, choir, extra music/ marching band instruments, and probably more that I have no memory of, not having partaken.
--Punishment for intransigent behaviour, ranged from extra time doing cleaning, of house, or seniors shoes, to detention, which consisted of extra study of one's worst subjects. Here you might, depending on senior in charge, have opportunity to ask intelligent questions on subject, the senior having done your level two to four years previously. Any repeatedly obstreperous anti-social behaviour might bring one to a court of prefects where a charge was brought, and a witness for and witness against, and one 'cut' (slipper across the backside) for actually arriving in prefects court, then whatever punishment was added. No more than six total cuts, or a dismissal to the Second Head Master. Here one would also receive a fair hearing, but rarely did not get at least one cane across the backside, for being referred to him. If repeatedly referred to 2nd, and he referred you to the Headmaster, one nearly always got caned minimum of two and maximum of six, and a letter of dishonour sent to one's parents. If repeatedly before Headmaster, one might be asked to find another school, as obviously one could not abide in honour with the opportunities given one.
--So, the first 'rule' of school, was, that one could do anything one wanted, only, do not get caught! There were school rules that set out the boundaries of the physical site, and the behaviour expected of all young gentlemen, no matter provocation. Provocation itself being punishable within those rules.
--Easy. After first semester, rules and discipline were known, and ignorance thereof was unacceptable. Then the punishments were fit, and school became FUN, exciting and 'the best years of one's life.'
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--''{ arosis } - harrowing. Verbal abuse in a stern and pitiless fashion. Its purpose, much like physical beatings, is to inure the senses to insult, to harden the will against responding with rage and fear, the twin unmanning evils of which that state called - katalepsis - possession, is comprised. The prized response, the one the Peers look for, is humour. Deflect defamation with a joke, the coarser the better. Laugh in its face. A mind which can maintain its lightness will not come undone in war.
--Over the Mess entrance -- Exo tes thyras ouden, -- meaning no word spoken within these precincts may be repeated elsewhere. - 'Out this door nothing.' -
--Required to answer in the Spartan style, at once, with extreme brevity.
--Your eyes were horror-stricken, your heart aggrieved at the sight of the manslaughter. ANSWER this :
--What did you think a spear was for? A shield? A xiphos sword?
--Questions would be put, not in a harsh or abusive tone, which would have been easier to bear, but coldly, rationally, demanding a concisely expressed reasoned response.
--Describe the wounds an eight-footer could produce and the types of deaths that would ensue. Should an overhand thrust be aimed at the throat or chest? If the tendon of a foeman's calf be severed, should you pause to finish him off or press on with the advance? If you plunge a spear into the groin above a man's testicles, should it be pulled straight out or ripped upwards, blade vertical, to eviscerate the man's bowels?
--Would you like to stop, boy? Is this instruction too much for you?
--ANSWER concisely :
-Can you envision a world without war?
-Can you imagine clemency from an enemy?
-Describe the condition of Lakedaemons without her army, without her warriors to defend her.
-Which is better, victory or defeat?
-To rule or be ruled?
-To make a widow of the enemy's wife or have one's own wife widowed?
-What is the supreme virtue of a man? Why?
-Whom of all the city do you admire the most? Why?
-Define the word 'mercy'. Define 'compassion'.
-Are these the virtues of war or of peace? Of men or of women? Are they virtues at all?
--Everything they did was not to break his spirit or crush him like a slave, but to make him stronger, to temper his will and render him more worthy of being called a warrior, as they were, of taking his place as a Spartiate and a Peer.''
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--Now, we weren't quite as 'noble' as this portrayal of Spartan instruction, but pretty close. Later in sniper training, things got much more intense, but today's schools have no idea the capacity of twelve year olds to soak up the interesting, if education would just be presented to them as fun, interesting, exciting, alongside gross, crass and hard yakka. Life is as hard or as easy as one has prepared for it, and while education is vital, a sense of humour will see you through nearly everything, up or down, financial or not, adventuresome or horrific. Humour rules, OK!
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Excerts taken from : < Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield. >
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''For Age And Want Save While You May.''
