The response of Dr Mike Cole (Letters, January 24) to the fair and balanced feature by Angela Wintle on the career of William Blackshaw, long-retired headmaster of Brighton College (The Argus Weekend, January 19), was below-the-belt, politically correct cant.

I don't know how much personal experience Dr Cole has of caning, either from the dishing it out point of view or being on the receiving end, but his attitude is rather like that of a small-time school bully who cannot resist a final kick at someone left lying on the ground after others have done the dirty work.

I went to a local secondary school (1941-47) and, on several occasions, suffered four of the best from our late, esteemed headmaster, who the boys knew was punishing them for their own good and knew they deserved it.

In those days, we earned respect not by being the most disruptive influence in the class but in the way we stood up to a beating by the head. If we went home snivelling to mummy to complain, we were looked on with utter contempt.

At that time, nearly all boys' schools dealing with 12 to 16-year-olds had no hesitation in using corporal punishment for maintaining discipline. I was backed up by the authority of scripture and consent of parents and was supported by both national and local government.

Caning was very effective as a deterrent, especially where bullying was concerned, and the final sanction of expulsion was rarely needed. Today, with no caning, we have thousands of children excluded from school without a normal education. Can this be right?

The huge advantage of the proper use of the cane backed by other disciplinary procedures is that class teachers are given a large measure of protection by just threatening to send disobedient pupils to the head teacher and are able to get on with the job of teaching.

An EU Directive ended these very sensible arrangements. Many people have been taken in and do not fully understand the issues involved, to the detriment of today's schoolchildren and the morale of teachers.

You have only to look around you to see which is the right policy.

-Alan Nunn, Pipers Close, Hove