Block Head

‘THE Tory law and order debate probably played quite well to one constituency: the headmaster of Sherburn Hill Primary School in Co Durham.

A scene from school life in Durham

The Telegraph reports that police are investigating claims that an eight-year-old pupil was restrained by a Victorian ‘finger stool’ that was on loan to the school from the education authority’s historical archive.

He was allegedly restrained by wooden blocks attached to his fingers, and with his hands clamped behind his back.

The punishment was supposedly for snapping the point of a pencil, and is said to have taken place in the headmaster’s study.

We here at Anorak offer cautious approval. In our view, the punishment should fit the crime – say one finger snapped in half for each damaged pencil. All the same, it’s a step in the right direction.

Needless to say, the boy’s stepfather sees things differently.

‘When the kids came home and told me what had happened, I didn’t believe them,’ he said. ‘It was only when our boy’s younger sister told exactly the same story that I realised they were serious.’

A spokesman for the county council said that the equipment was part of a ‘living history’ experience. He explained that it was used ‘to stop Victorian children fidgeting in class’.

The sound you can hear is a million Telegraph readers shouting ‘hip, hip hooray’, as their Oxford marmalade-covered dentures clunk onto their breakfast plates.’

Posted: 8th, October 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink