To Johnny Dave and Ed, I have some sympathy with your sentiments. I went to a school in which canings were common. It was an all boys baording school of 700. At The Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, canings averaged two a week. They were virtually mandatory for homosexuality, stealing, vandalism of any sort, rudeness to teachers and "doing a bunk". A lot of features of the school discipline would have warmed your hearts and a lot of what you say about the impossibility of an assault on a teacher is true. I am afraid that is only one side of the coin though.
Most of the teachers there were very dedicated men, who were very committed to providing a service to children. On the other side, there were some who were not. In fact, one or two of these filled me with fear as a boy and now they fill me with contempt as a grown man. There was absolutely nothing that could be done to remove them or even restrain them in any way. Despicable as I find assaults on teachers, I am very pleased that the system which allowed a minority of very wicked men to get away with vicious assaults on small children indefinitely has had its day.
Corporal punishment has gone the way of the hangman's noose, the fox hunt, the guillotine, the pillory and all those other pillars of another age. It was another age. I feel no nostalgia for it.