Spare the Rod on AllMovie

Spare the Rod is a British juvenile-delinquent picture set in a tough East End school. Comedian Max Bygraves plays straight as a new teacher, faced with a classroom full of hostile, defiant punks. It would be simple enough to use force on the kids, as their parents have, but Bygraves wants to win their hearts and minds. He manages to establish communications with the students; the next step is to bypass the outmoded educational bureaucracy. Spare the Rod falls somewhere between the gutsiness of Blackboard Jungle (55) and the lyricism of To Sir With Love (68).