Houston, TX, 1966. I got three pops from The Board Of Education, administered by the coach that I mouthed off to.
Australia, government high school (selective and all boys), 1958-1962. We had the cane, and I got it once or twice (either for missing detention or for regularly not doing homework). I don’t think it had much effect on discipline, either in a positive way or in a negative way, but it was probably easier for the teachers to administer than other methods would have been.
It was rumored. There was one teacher, a male (which was a rarity in the '60s in my Ohio elementary school) who was supposed to be the guy who would take you in the coatroom and take down your pants or pull up your skirt and paddle you. It was the story passed down from grade to grade. Everyone was afraid of him.
Except me. He lived across the street from me. He was great. I kept his secret. Some 15 years later I took a college class taught by his son. We reminisced and laughed our heads off. Yes, everybody knew Mr. W. would paddle you good. Ha.
Christian private school in the seventies. I got paddled lots of times, especially in third grade. My usual offense was forgetting to have my mom sign my homework.
Once, several adult strangers were brought in to witness my paddling, and they all prayed over me afterward. Humiliating and bizarre.
In about 1980 in rural central Virginia, corporal punishment was used, I got the paddle from the principal for fighting one time. I started the fight but don’t even remember why, I think I just wanted to fight for some reason.
Before the paddle we tried to put Hot Wheels cars in our pockets but the principal shrewdly saw through that trick. I don’t remember him being mean or malicious about it, it was just a matter-of-fact punishment.
Nashville, TN, graduated 1981.
Private boys school - BGA 7 & 8th grades. You bet. Teachers could smack, backhand, & drag you by your sideburns as they deemed necessary. Saturday detention was a more common sentence.
9-12 public school? You bet. Licks or days, (suspension) your choice.
I always chose licks, because they didn’t tell your folks when you got whacked. I’d have gotten worse at home if they had.
I have a vague memory of a policy change my last year, though, and the principal telling my mom on speakerphone he was giving me 3 whacks. I think she said “make it 5.”
Today, here in the Atlanta area, I don’t think any school systems tolerate such barbaric behavior.:rolleyes:
Someone has to think of the cheerins, you know.
Central Illinois, 1975-1988
I know it was used in elementary school (wooden paddle). I was familiar with a few kids getting it, but never myself.
I can’t say with any certainty if it was administered in junior high or high school, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.
I went to a Catholic elementary school in Queens (NY) from 1966-1975. Up to and including 2nd grade, some kids DID regularly get their backsides whacked with yardsticks or pointers.
After that, there were never any real beatings- but an occasional slap on the face or a little hair pulling was far from unheard of.
Now, my little brother, who started going to the same school in 1978, would have told you nothing like that ever happened.
Sydney, Australia.
Selective, co-educational, public boarding school.
1981-1986.
The cane (across the upturned hand) was frequently given to boys for various infractions, from talking after lights-out to rough-housing in the dormitories to failing to complete homework.
I received the cane on two occasions in Grade 7 (1 stroke, and 4 strokes), and once in Grade 9 (4 strokes). But i was a pretty good kid. I think the record among my Grade 7 friends was a total of something like 80 or 90 strokes over the course of the year, and the winner took considerable pride in his accomplishment.
The cane was usually administered at a side entrance to the Teachers’ Residence, and if a teacher told you to “Go to the side door,” you knew that you were going to be caned. Students standing along the wall by the side door were often taunted by other students as they awaited their punishment.
The school had about 300 boarding students and about 600 day students, but the cane was very rarely given in the day school. It was almost exclusively used in the boarding school.
By the time i left at the end of 1986, corporal punishment was declining in frequency, although some teachers still used it.
Rural Illinois, but not downstate. (Illinoisans will understand the difference.)
1961-1973
I don’t think corporal punishment was ever used in my grade school. If it was I never heard about it. The high school handbook didn’t mention it, so I’m sure it wasn’t used there. I don’t know if it was legal or not.
I graduated high school in 1980. Corporal punishment was alive and well after I graduated.
Yes I received my fair share of paddlings with ‘Big Bertha’ and other wooden paddles.
It hurt like hell. When we got a ‘busting’ at school; we had to bend over and grab our ankles. Frankly I don’t care what anyone has to say about it; I deserved every lick I ever got; and more. It was absolutely a deterrent to bad behavior.
But does it make you behave better?
In our case, it generally didn’t. Witness my story, above, about the guy who got the most canings being quite proud of the fact. And he was not an unusual case at my school.
The thing is, while being caned could hurt quite a lot depending upon which teacher administered the punishment (some teachers were known to hit very hard, while others had a reputation for going easy), the alternative punishment given to girls was usually detention, which generally involved simply standing in one place for extended periods of time.
Most boys at our school preferred the sting of the cane, with it’s throbbing aftermath, to standing on one spot for two hours. Many thought that the girls had it tougher because they got detention instead of the cane.
I grew up in Ohio and went to school in the 60’s and 70’s and early 80’s and our grade school was Catholic owned. We had Catholic nuns that were teachers in our school. Grades 2, 3, and 5 had nuns as teachers. If anyone stepped out of line we would be pinched, slapped on the back, hands or wrists smacked with a ruler and hair pulled. Once I had my mouth washed out with liquid soap from the boys bathroom. In grade 1, we had to stand in the back of the room and hold dictionaries straight out from our sides in our hands in the shape of the cross. After a few minutes your arms would want to come down to your sides still holding the books, but when the teacher saw you resting you were ordered to stick those books straight out again.
In the office was a board that looked a lot like a cricket bat. This bat had a handle on it much like a baseball bat and the teachers or principle were allowed to use this on the children. Usually, the cost of the crime was 1 or 2 whacks, but once I saw a boy bending over his teachers desk holding his boy parts and being whacked until he cried. The boy didn’t want to cry to give them the satisfaction, but eventually he did.
In kindergarten, I remember a girl that could never stay in her seat. The teachers literally taped her to her seat. Another joy of kindergarten was if you told on someone, you had to wear a tail at recess. It strapped on you like a belt and you had to wear it for all to see. To be humiliated in public.
Our 6th grade teacher was a man and there were many times when he picked children up off the floor and up against the wall all the while yelling at them. One punishment was to draw a circle on the chalk board higher above your nose and stand on your tip toes to put your nose in the circle. Sometimes children stood there for 30 minutes. We as a class tried very hard to not get in trouble. In my school system as late as 1982 children were still being sent to the office to get the board in high school.
I will say that this type of punishment got results and the children rarely got out of line as they understood the consequences. Today, this type of thing would not work. Parent’s would not allow their children to be abused and tortured.
Greg
We had the cane at school and I was a regular until I was 15 then I told the head what I would with his cane if he used it I never was caned again
Zombie thread but, WTF, corporal punishment and zombies seem to go well together.
Rural Australia, primary school in the 70’s through to finishing high school in 83.
They def had the cane in primary school but I never got it. Got it a few times in the first couple of years of High School but they started phasing it out around 1980.
The prick who got me in high school was a sadistic little bastard who used to strut around the grounds with his cane looking for an opportunity. He would get you to hold out your hand, palm up, he’d hold the cane just above your fingertips, give it a couple of little up and down waves to get the range then launch into it like a golfer hitting a drive. If he just shaved the finger tips (which stung like hell) he’d claim that was a miss and didn’t count. He had to get you right on the fingerprint to count.
My elementary school had it back in the mid to late 80s North Carolina. Parents had to sign a permission slip I believe for the kids to get paddled. Mine never did it cause my dad just preferred to do it himself. But yah, I remember it being kept in the principal’s office and had like holes in it to make it swing harder. I also remember that if you ever got caught by a teacher tattling on someone else, you had to wear donkey ears all day so everyone knew you were a tattletale.
Edit: Gdi lol zombie thread.
That is what happened in my HS in Missouri in the 80’s. We told the teacher what would happen if he tried it OR he tried it with our younger siblings.
It is still legal in Kansas but rarely used.
And when it is there are rules regarding use so their isnt the abuse it had in the past. For example at one private school before it can be used there has to be
- Informing the parents.
- Parent conference
- Teacher must list all other discipline methods used.
- When all that and finally done the parent is informed and can be present.
Thing is some teachers were truly sadist and I’ve worked with several who no way in hell would I trust them. If they touched my kid I’d be in there the next day with a baseball bat to do some CP on them!
I’ve got an idea. How about using CP on the teachers every time they mess up? Examples could be excessive sick days, delays in grading papers, errors in grading, mouthing off to administrators, poor lesson plans, poor teaching methods, etc… all would get the teacher some swats!