I’ve been beaten with a mop. That hurt for weeks.
In my experience though, forcing kids to waddle around the track in a squatting position causes far more pain that lasts far longer than most beatings.
Seoul, Korea.
If I remember the thinking at the time, the holes (supposedly) decreased wind resistance so you could swing harder/faster/stronger. Ugh.
Lord, once in gym class when we were supposed to practice square dancing (wut? Yeah.) someone (one of the “tuff” girls - she smoked!) took the stylus out of the record player and flung it into the bleachers while the teacher wasn’t looking. Our punishment (because, obviously, it was the fault of the entire class), was to sit on the floor with our arms held straight out in front of us. We chuckled, but after about 15 minutes everyone was sobbing with pain.
My parents paid good money to send us to a private parochial school to be beaten regularly. My father was a carpenter, and kept the school supplied in paddles of various sizes and shapes.
There was a female assistant principal in charge of the elementary kids, it was K-12 in one campus, and she administered paddlings to all the girls. Boys had to go the the junior high assistant principal for theirs. That woman used to wind up like Babe frognogging Ruth whaling on my ass, and freely admitted to me on more than one occasion that her goal was to make me cry. She felt that once my spirit had been broken, there’d be room there for the holy ghost or whatever, and hence I wouldn’t talk in class or misbehave.
We used to get repeated spankings at home whenever the parents found out about getting paddled at school; at some point they either gave up trying to keep up or stopped caring as much. After that, just got home spanking for home infraction and school spanking for school issues.
!!! :eek: What on EARTH did you DO?!
interrobang
Several times, but only got ‘6 of the best’ a couple of times, iirc.
The photo here looks about right for the usual belt or strap in Scotland.
I don’t recall anyone getting it under the age of 9, I think, and the last time I got it would have been 4 strokes when I was maybe 15 in the early 1970s.
But back in Primary 7, one of the other form masters used it almost daily and it wasn’t that unusual to speak to somebody from his class at break and discover that he had given the entire class the belt! Usually not 6, as that would have been a lot of effort punishing up to 30 boys, but 3 or 4 was almost common.
He was not a well-loved man.
Well that is exactly what I’m talking about. Come to think about it, the principal was from Scotland, a highlander with a very thick accent.
It was part of our normal school culture in Scotland up into the 1980s, although latterly (at the school I had attended at least) the punishment was meant to be meted out by the Headmaster or a Deputy. I believe. But back in my day all the teachers had a ‘Lochgelly’ and the authority to use it.
Strap, no. Paddle, yes. Had a sixth grade teacher, Mr. Flanagan, who had a wall of paddles…some made by former students in shop class. 
There was one that had holes in it for less air resistance, even. :p:p
Never.
We had the paddle in our school but I was so shy and sleepy I never got into trouble until the day I walked out after spitting on my economics teacher.
Paddle in our schools. All my teachers and administrators were told in no uncertain terms to apply it as necessary, then call my dad so he could reinforce it at home. Only got swatted once, in 7th grade, and Dad decided that the VP and I were both right, so I didn’t get any additional swat at home.
Yardstick, mid-60s, Alabama elementary school. Then put in the coat closet to think about it.
Saskatchewan, 1970’s - I didn’t get the strap myself, but we were all aware that the principal had one and was willing to use it (it might have been a paddle - I’m not sure now). We did have a teacher who loved to use his yardstick - the boys would get it over their heads, and the girls would get it cracked across their desks. Let me tell you, you stop talking and start paying attention in class when you get a yardstick cracked across your desk.
Strap? No
Paddle? I can’t even count that high.
Got caned across the tush when I was 12 in the 70s. “Spidey” (so named because he had hairy legs) and I were messing around with a pen and a piece of string instead of paying attention, and our teacher, “Pussy” (so named because he had a moustached that looked like whiskers - these were innocent times) lost patience, took us outside and let us have it with a thin cane he kept for the purpose.
Don’t want to sound like one of those old farts who huffs and puffs about how the army or some other horror was the making of him, but getting caned sure got my attention. I got focussed real quick after that.
I was in about 3rd grade when the laws prohibited corporal punishment in the schools, and before that, one teacher had a couple of paddles (wood, not leather straps). I only received corporal punishment once, and it was a literal slap on the wrist: I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but it was done to everyone in the class on that occasion. Most teachers, though, preferred the Stern Talking To even before corporal punishment was prohibited.
Never. Maryland officially banned corporal punishment in schools the year I entered 1st grade and it had fallen out of favor before that, so I never saw a paddle, a strap, a smack, or anything. My mom told stories about the “Board of Education” at her school (North Carolina, 1960s), so I knew it existed, but the notion of being hit at school was mythical to me. It was well-known that it was Not Allowed and you could get the teacher in Very Big Trouble for it.
I went to a Christian school in Arizona in the 70s and 80s. I got paddled a lot (wooden paddles). It was always the teacher who did it. They’d make you step outside the classroom (outdoors) and make you bend over, then they’d whack at you til they thought it was enough, then let you cry for a few minutes before having you go back in to class.
Chreeerist, the holes are drilled in the paddle to sting harder. Y’all shoulda gotten a few licks on each buttock since you obviously were not paying attention in science. 
It’s not to reduce air resistance so you can paddle harder. Those goddamn holes each sting. A bunch of holes and you get more stinging.
Now maybe this *is *a question for the Perfect Master…
This is exactly my experience.
My boarding school in the 1960s not only allowed masters and prefects to cane boys for everything from smoking to getting the answer wrong, but we were also beaten with a sandshoe by house prefects for things like talking after lights out.
Needless to say, there was a culture of bullying allowed, particularly from older pupils to the younger ones.