The Punishment of Children in Primary Schools: a study of corporal punishment as a disciplinary method in Trondheim's primary schools 1890‐1930

Abstract

In Trondheim, one of the larger Norwegian urban communities, recorded punishment were administered to about 5% of the students in four primary schools in the 1890s. The largest number of violations that the students committed were related to school work, and from the school's point of view they were regarded as behaviour that might generally be characterized as 'sabotage' of school work. From the beginning of the 1890s and until the middle of the 1920s there was a steady decline in the number of punishments, and the drop in the numbers must considered very large. The proportion had already sunk to under 1% before 1920. The decline may be explained in different ways.

The Punitive Repertoire of Children's Homes and Reformatories

“…The actual execution, however, is left to a male colleague. This ritual could have been enacted anywhere in Norwegian schools between 1889, when corporal punishments were first regulated by law, and 1936, when it was abolished by the Primary School Act (Svartvatn and Telhaug 1996). Though lacking the gruesome qualities of Foucault's (1977) famous description of the execution of Damiens, scenes of this kind serve to remind us that punishment is not confined to criminal justice and the penal system.…”

Forty Years of Norwegian Research in the History of Education

“…From the end of the 1980s Korsvold has worked with the inner life in Norwegian day-care centres, describing and analysing them after interviews with older and younger preschool teachers (Korsvold, 1990(Korsvold, , 1996. Thuen (1992), Handal (undated) and Svartvatn Telhaug (1992) have illuminated the historical development of discipline and punishment in educational institutions and schools. Folklore researcher Hodne has compiled people's recollections and described the everyday life in Norwegian primary schools from 1885 to 1925 (1987).…”