Steve Henderson wrote:Homer Simpson strangles Bart Simpson and children and adults laugh along to it. Corporal punishment should NOT be altered, it annoys me that it was ended in the first place, bring it back I say lets see Dennis's Dad back in his stripey suit dishing out slipper! Kids are not sensitive to this sort of thing.
I think it's more to do with the reactions of over-hysterical parents and retailers, more than how children would perceive it. A complaint against a comic from some over-cautious parent could get a comic withdrawn from the shelves, costing the publishers thousands. Since the situations with
Action and
Oink! (two comics kids loved but some parents hated) publishers are
very careful now.
That said, comics have to move with the times. As caning is now illegal it makes no sense to show teacher brandishing a cane. Sure, Classics should show strips in context, but it's a newsstand comic not a history book, so has to follow the same criteria as other comics.
As for the disappearance of caning in schools, blame over-zealous teachers for part of it. In the early 1970s a teacher at my high caned the entire class because ONE kid threw a rubber at her and no one would own up who did it. The fact that half the class of 30 pupils didn't even SEE who thew the rubber didn't seem to occur to the teacher. This was reported on the local tv news at the time and was one factor in getting caning banned. (Luckily I was away that day so missed the whack.)
There were other instances of abuse from other teachers that I remember, particularly a sports teacher who'd be sacked on the spot today for his behaviour. The sad fact is some teachers were bullies and sadists who should never have been allowed near children and they made it bad for the majority of decent teachers.
Lew
a little bit
In Classics
