should the cane be brought back into school?

I dunno.

I guess it must be quite effective seeing as unruly kids don't like being at school normally, so they will hate anything extra-curricular.

I don't know much about naughty children to be honest, I was an and my school didn't have many unruly kids. I don't know what things are like inside a mixed comp for instance I was at an all girls grammar, so no naughty boys

What if they refuse?

And physically bullying other children (which could be punishable by cane) isn't? When we talk of abuse, aren't we usually saying that the vicitm is innocent and has done nothing to deserve it?

I'm sorry, but to some people sitting in an empty classroom for an hour just isn't enough of a deterrent. Caning would not only provide a useful deterrent, it would also save money- you wouln't have to pay so many teachers overtime for supervising detentions. Obviously you would only do it for very serious offences like physical abuse of other students.

Crikey I sound like an old man- but I think it's at least worth a trial or something. problem is of course that if you DID come up with a system, it would be very difficult to police, and a minority of teachers would inevitably abuse it/break the rules and it would be banned again in a blink of an eye on the basis of one case which would be plastered all over the media.

Also this country is too full of injury lawyers, child welfare specialists /campaigners for it to actually happen. Chances are though, that if they actually had to spend more than a few minutes in the company of the tearaways the system might deter, they'd change their minds pretty quickly.

I dunno.

I guess it must be quite effective seeing as unruly kids don't like being at school normally, so they will hate anything extra-curricular.

I don't know much about naughty children to be honest, I was an and my school didn't have many unruly kids. I don't know what things are like inside a mixed comp for instance I was at an all girls grammar, so no naughty boys

This. How do you expect children to learn that it's wrong to hit people if teachers are using this as a method of control?

I can just imagine this:

Teacher - "You're getting caned"
Pupil - "Yea, well blud your getting stabbed by me uncle innit"

Lock them up. The worst punishment I had as a kid was being forced to stare at the wall. Sounds pathetic but I hated it... kids can't keep still.

I can just imagine this:

Teacher - "You're getting caned"
Pupil - "Yea, well blud your getting stabbed by me uncle innit"

I don't think it should be brought back, seems too primitive for this day and age. However, I do think it's wrong that if a child should physically attack a teacher, the teacher is essentially defenceless in that they can't hit back because then they would be seen as the one in the wrong.
Leaving age should be lowered, get the little ***** out quicker.

Yep, without a doubt.

My Dad caned me at home when I was younger, it did me no harm (well at the time I did) and certainly made me behave!

The worst was when he'd make me go out and get a thin bendy branch from the garden haha, soon learned my lesson.