Gove’s Intentions
In 2014, Michael Gove, the then Minister of Education , suggested that schools should use traditional punishments to discipline malcontent and miss behaving school pupils (1).
One of the suggested punishments for classroom indiscipline was running laps of the playground.
Not only could this be viewed as a form of corporal punishment, outlawed across the UK by 2003 (2), but for the overweight and inactive it could even be regarded as cruel and unusual punishment.
The sport that I love (and occasionally hate) touted as a means of reprimanding rebellious kids. Lanes replacing lines and exhaustion replacing detention. It earmarked running as a punishment and children would arguably soon learn to despise running.