The Lady doth protest too much, Me Thinks 

  from Hamlet by William Shakespeare

(d: 23 April 1616)

 

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This picture is a puzzle. The general consensus in the 1960s was that the caning of girls had almost completely faded out. Yet this picture of girls protesting against it was widely published in the newspapers. Were they subject to the cane or were they protesting on behalf of the their boyfriends? Perhaps, the frivolous comment would be to say that they should all return to their class-rooms or have a taste of the cane? But the story below suggests something else was going on. We were girls actually caned for longer than most people believed?
This story, by Bruce Kemble, the legendary Daily Express education correspondent, was published in 1991. So the caning of girls was around but it was fading out. But it makes interesting reading anyway.