# Did anyone ever have to clap erasers for punishment? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176 "2011-03-27T19:33:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/21 "2011-03-28T12:25:05Z")
It was a blast, hitting them against the brick wall outside and watching the chalk fly. Later in my school years I recall some sort of machine that would brush the erasers and suck the dust into some vacuum bag. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/22 "2011-03-28T13:12:39Z")
We loved doing it. But our school had electric eraser cleaners – a rotating brush, sort of like a circular saw, with a vaccum to suck up the dust. You’d run the eraser over the brush and it’d be clean in a minute. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/23 "2011-03-28T13:16:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … > We also had to sweep up the classroom after class. > > Punishment was writing things 500 times on the blackboard, a la Bart Simpson. Yes, all these things really happened in my parochial school. Cliches get to be that way by being true, much of the time. We never swept up that I can recall but once I had to stay in at recess and write “I will not talk in class” 100 times. I think that was 4th grade. That was public school. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/24 "2011-03-28T13:41:40Z")
I lived close to my elementary school and usually stayed after school to clap erasers and wash the boards. I was a teacher’s pet. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/25 "2011-03-28T13:49:53Z")
Treat here too. My daughter’s school doesn’t even have chalk boards. I guess it’s a thing of the past. We had punishments such as having to stand in the front of the classroom holding a dictionary in each hand or getting swatted with a ruler on the knuckles. I never suffered any punishment for any reason in school, being a perfect angel. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/26 "2011-03-28T13:58:32Z")
Male. Catholic School. 12 Years. The good girls got to clap erasers. In the spring. Out back. With the June Bugs. The rest of us got to diagram sentences. Thank Og it wasn’t Hemingway. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/27 "2011-03-28T14:10:01Z")
Back in Catholic grade school we were supposed to go outside and clap them together. I remember a couple girls getting in big trouble because they opted to pound them against the side of the school on the bricks. The way the nuns carried on you’d think they just spray painted “GOD SUCKS!” on the side of the building. Even thinking back now I have no idea what got them so worked up. It was freakin chalk dust. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/28 "2011-03-28T15:38:04Z")
Yep, clapping erasers was a prize doled out to students eager to go outside and make big clouds of dust (i.e. all of us). ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/29 "2011-03-28T18:24:38Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Back in Catholic grade school we were supposed to go outside and clap them together. I remember a couple girls getting in big trouble because they opted to pound them against the side of the school on the bricks. The way the nuns carried on you’d think they just spray painted “GOD SUCKS!” on the side of the building. Even thinking back now I have no idea what got them so worked up. It was freakin chalk dust. Y’aint figure out what got the nuns all worked up? Pretty much anything that undermined their regime! :eek: \<\<\< What one’s face would look like upon being grabbed by the ear. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/30 "2011-03-28T18:32:37Z")
Nah, when I was in grade school the teachers’ preferred method of punishment was to make the entire class suffer for one student’s behavior, thus ensuring that kid got his ass kicked at recess. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/31 "2011-03-28T21:15:00Z")
It was neither a prize nor a punishment when I was at school. Just a task for which all the students were rostered one week per annum. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/32 "2011-03-29T16:14:34Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In my school, that was seen as a reward. That’s how I remember it- the old nuns made it seem like a treat for good kids! ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/33 "2011-03-29T17:09:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In my school, that was seen as a reward. Mine too. Plus the school had this vacuum thing designed to help you clean the erasers. It worked great on the wool type erasers, but not so much on the ‘spongy’ type erasers. [http://www.findanauction.com/images/njauction/414644431.jpg](http://www.findanauction.com/images/njauction/414644431.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/34 "2011-03-29T18:40:47Z")
You had electricity?! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/35 "2011-03-29T21:59:54Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > It wasn’t that fun at my parochial school, because you didn’t actually clap them. They had a machine, a vacuum with a rotating brush – looked like a miniature wood planer – you slid the erasers over it and it sucked the chalk dust into a cloth bag attached at the bottom. My school had this, and cleaning was a reward. I only got to do it once or twice but I remember it being _awesome_. I seem to remember it made a cool noise. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/36 "2011-03-29T22:11:27Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > It wasn’t that fun at my parochial school, because you didn’t actually clap them. They had a machine, a vacuum with a rotating brush – looked like a miniature wood planer – you slid the erasers over it and it sucked the chalk dust into a cloth bag attached at the bottom. > > The teachers still treated it as a special reward, giving it to special students, even though it wasn’t as much fun as clapping the erasers & making clouds of dust. My Catholic grade school had the exact same machine. Yep, as I remember it two students had cleanup duty on a rotating basis on Fridays: erase and sponge down the chalkboards, clean the erasers, straight out the desk rows, empty out the wastebasket into the incinerator chute (still remember the smell, I wonder how much longer after 1985ish the school kept that thing running). Everyone had to do it and it was never assigned as punishment. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/37 "2011-03-30T18:31:54Z")
It was definitely a treat at my school, but even as a teacher’s pet I only got to do it once or twice. It seemed to be a task that the teacher saved to reward the “bad” boys for being good for a change. Smart teachers! ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176/38 "2011-03-30T19:17:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In my school, that was seen as a reward. It wasa reward if you got to do it while other kids were doing yucky school work. It was a (mild) punishment if you had to do it during recess while everyone else had fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-anyone-ever-have-to-clap-erasers-for-punishment/576176.md?page=1)