Trust me, you accept the beating. The alternatives and escalation path was not something you wanted to explore. My school had waterboarding on the menu, for instance, which I cannot recommend.

And no, you can’t retaliate in secret by putting thumbtacks in the master’s shoes - that just results in cohort punishment and witch-hunts by your fellow pupils who want to skewer whoever is responsible for bringing down the wrath of god upon them.

Fear is an exquisite control mechanism.