I chose to learn the piano when I was 11, thinking I would soon be able to play all the latest pop music. I was still being made to play proper piano pieces and it wasn’t cool for a 16 year old boy to play the piano so I decided to give it up. My Dad had other ideas and insisted that I continue with the lessons as it would be another ‘positive’ on my university applications. I might have to keep going but I wasn’t going to work at it and so I effectively stopped practicing and just went to the lessons. Miss Edwards was my teacher and to be fair she wasn’t bad looking, about 30-ish, slim and attractive though her glasses made her look a little stern.
Two weeks after my decision to ‘give up’ she told me she would be speaking to my father as she was unhappy wasting her time teaching me if I was not going to practice between lessons. I didn’t care as I wanted to stop anyway and naively thought this might be my way out. My Dad went to Miss Edwards house to discuss a way forward and when he got home he told me he’d agreed that Miss Edwards could spank me if I did not practice properly. No way I was going to accept this and we had a blazing row which ended up with me getting six of the cane on my bare bum and being sent to bed.
Miss Edwards said she could tell I had done some work since we last spoke but I needed to do more. I was mortified when she told me about her conversation with my father and how he’d told her I still got the cane when I needed it. She reminded me that my father had agreed that she could cane me if I did not practice properly. I argued that he told me she could ‘spank’ me if I did not practice and she just smiled before telling me to play the piece again. My Dad had obviously agreed to her giving me the cane but hadn’t given me the full version; I had no option but to practice.
This was how it was for a couple more lessons then the following week I had a couple of things on in the evening, some homework that had to be in and we went away for the weekend. I had twenty minutes practice before my lesson and set off with some trepidation. I can’t have been playing for more than ten minutes when Miss Edwards told me to get up and tell her how much practice I’d done.
“Erm...um… I …er...three nights,” I lied.
“Right,” she said, “I was going to give you 3 strokes as it is your first time but you lied to me. You have done no more than one half hour practice at the most, so now I will give you another 6 strokes to encourage you to tell me the truth in future.”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Please, no, Miss Edwards, I have been so busy I didn’t have time, I will practice next time, I promise.”
“You should have thought of that before, now, strip down to your underpants while I get the cane.” I stood there shocked.