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The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of corporal punishment in schools in Sri Lanka, and to offer reflections on how cybernetics could shed light on its persistence despite initiatives to ban it.

The ASC 2013 Heinz von Foerster Award for the most significant contribution to the conference was awarded following discussion of the use of the cane in Sri Lankan schools. This paper provides a personal account of difficulties in overcoming the use of corporal punishment in a school in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan education system is introduced. The response of the ASC 2013 is discussed. The feedback between social forces and the education system is seen as being too complex for analysis, and Bateson's conception of ethos is proposed as an appropriate starting point for making progress on this issue.

The use of corporal punishment has been forbidden by the Ministry of Education, but the practice evidently continues and there is evidence that this has negative impact on young people. The paper offers an approach to understanding the reasons for the prevalence and persistence of corporal punishment, as a first step towards designing measures to eliminate it.

The paper takes a new approach to understanding the persistence of corporal punishment in Sri Lanka by applying Bateson's concepts of ethos and schismogenesis.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the relevance of the literature of cybernetics for a positive psychology approach to dyslexia.

A selective bibliography is presented, which reflects the exchange of ideas between the authors, two of whom work in the field of psychology, one in educational cybernetics and the other in information systems.

Examination of the literature suggests that there is scope for the application of positive psychology to dyslexia. In the cybernetic literature there is little direct discussion of either positive psychology or dyslexia. However, these areas are linked by the themes of self-steering systems and of levels of learning. Cybernetics identifies systemic constraints and therapeutic approaches which can inform the use of positive psychology techniques with dyslexics.

The paper documents the relevance of cybernetic analysis to the self-regulation carried out by dyslexics, and in so doing also enriches discourse on dyslexia in the field of psychology. The paper will be of value to those carrying out research into dyslexia, and to those who are supporting or working alongside people with dyslexia.