# Things teachers did decades ago that wouldn’t fly today…



## Fyrefox (Sep 2, 2022)

From our days as students, I’m sure we can remember things teachers did back then that would be frowned upon today, or even result in disciplinary action against them or dismissal…

One of them was _smoking!  _I can remember male teachers with cigarette packs in their pockets and tobacco breath; female teachers, too.  I even had a college professor who would blatantly smoke before his class under a wall-mounted “_no smoking_” sign…

What are some things your former teachers did that might raise eyebrows today?


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

We used to get belted with the Tawse...it was very painful and would leave bruising..and sometimes cuts.. it was a thick short leather strap. Some sadistic teachers would soak theirs in vinegar to make it extra tough..


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## Pepper (Sep 2, 2022)

In fifth grade, the teacher, Mrs. Snyder, threw Steven Weiss clear across the room.  He later became a hit man for the mob.  She was always insulting and attacking kids.  She was the music teacher for the school as well as a teacher.  My sister had her years before me.  She told my sister to mouth the words to school songs, not sing them, because she didn't like my sister's voice.  My sister Never Sang Again.

She made me so nervous I started pulling hair out of my head.  I didn't feel personally threatened by this shrew, but seeing it happen upset me.

We never told our mother till years later.


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## Della (Sep 2, 2022)

My fifth and sixth grade teacher was a wild and crazy guy who never would be tolerated today.  He told great animated stories that made us scream and laugh, but he also dispensed plenty of spankings for the boys.

 He didn't like to spank girls so he made us (me actually) do things that were supposed to be humiliating.  He had me stand at the front of the class and sing, "I'm a Little Teapot" complete with motions.  It had the wrong result because the whole class laughed and a class clown was born.


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## Della (Sep 2, 2022)

Pepper said:


> She told my sister to mouth the words to school songs, not sing them, because she didn't like my sister's voice. My sister Never Sang Again.


B*TCH!  I teared up reading that. My first grade teacher didn't tell me to mouth the words but every morning we sang songs and a different child was called to the front to lead the singing -- only never me -- and I haven't forgotten that, Mrs. Reynolds.


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## Furryanimal (Sep 2, 2022)

Apart from wielding the cane or whacking you with anything they could lay their hands on( and when we were kids parents would support this) there was throwing the wooden board duster at you or flicking pieces of chalk.
And punishing the whole class for the behaviour of one or two( guaranteed to make the miscreants behave again).
I never did that as a teacher .
...
Oh! It was common knowledge that one of our English teachers was having an affair with a married Geography teacher!
They were seen outside school!
should have gone out of town!
Such things probably still happen


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## Warrigal (Sep 2, 2022)

Corporal punishment. The cane was legal in my state in Australia when I was a child and still legal when I began to teach. There were rules about its use - no more than 6 cuts of the cane to each hand and every instance of corporal punishment had to be recorded in the punishment book. Boys of any age could be caned and girls too up to the age of 12. Female teachers did not cane but they could send disruptive pupils to a male teacher for corporal punishment.

A lot of abuse went with caning. Some boys were caned over and over again as the teacher tried to dominate particularly rebellious boys. At a primary school that I attended the teacher in the next classroom would often line the whole class up around the room and proceed to move around the circle, giving one cut to every pupil, boy or girl, to "wake them up for the day". He was an arrogant so and so and I was very glad to have the fair minded Mr McPhee who only delivered the cane when he thought the class was getting a bit out of hand. On those occasions he would warn us that Peter, as he named the cane, would be coming out of the cupboard and we should all mind how we behaved. After a few token canings Peter was returned to the cupboard not to be heard from for as long as it took for us to take liberties again. 

It was first banned as a punishment in state schools but persisted in boys private schools until the mid 70s, even later in some fundamentalist christian schools. When my husband made a mid career switch to teaching in 1972 boys at his school could still be bent over a desk and given the cane across the backside.


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## jet (Sep 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> We used to get belted with the Tawse...it was very painful and would leave bruising..and sometimes cuts.. it was a thick short leather strap. Some sadistic teachers would soak theirs in vinegar to make it extra tough..


a teacher we had,mr henderson-begg,used somin similar,,,but the ends were cut into strips,and used on your hands,,,


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## jet (Sep 2, 2022)

the cane,,slipper,chalk thrown at you,plus blackboard rubber


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

The Tawse was supposed to be only used on the palms of our hands, but the majority of teachers used  it on us, across our legs , our arms, even our heads if they were particularly sadistic...  sometimes parents would have to go to the school and confront a teacher.

In the early 70's the Tawse was banned as punishment for girls in Scotland but still boys had to face it.. 

As previous Brits have said.. we also got hit in the head with a Wooden Blackboard duster which would come flying through the air if we weren't paying attention..


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## Fyrefox (Sep 2, 2022)

I know that verbal abuse of students was to a larger degree acceptable in my day even if not common.  I had a Spanish teacher who if you didn’t know an answer would ask the student if they were lazy or stupid, then wait for _their _answer to that!  You dared not protest or talk back.  The administration supported this teacher and his verbal belittlement and intimidation of students, which wouldn’t fly in today’s schools.  No one then was concerned about your “feelings...”


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## Gary O' (Sep 2, 2022)

jet said:


> gotthe cane


We had the bamboo rod
Never got hit with it, but made to hold it and wait in another room once.
Several others actually got clubbed with it.

Thing is, we were some pretty wild country kids, and pretty 
much deserved it.
We ran a couple teachers out.
A couple others just plain went nuts.

Oh, why not......

Story time (sorry @Fyrefox )


*The Year of Taboli*

Mr Taboli arrived my third year, straight from the Philippines….or as he said, the ‘pillippeens’.
He wore a suit.
Reminded me of Desi Arnaz, hair all slicked into a pompadour with half a can of pomade.

And that accent. He didn’t have a chance.
‘OK turd grade, turn to page turdy eight.’
We slowly sacrificed that poor soul.

An event that I recall was pretty much the end of Mr Taboli.

Francis had a little brother, Dicky. Remember, this was in the ‘50s. The term ‘dick’ had yet to have a negative connotation. Fun with dick and Jane was just that.
We called him ‘Dicky’.
The kid was just one happy little guy.
Always grinnin’ that huge grin, buck teeth spaced wide apart, gigantic mouth….but had some intellect issues.
However, happy…just glad to be included in anything we did.
Unfortunately, what we did was mostly to his detriment.
Andy had this oversized gravenstein apple.
‘Hey Dicky, I bet you can’t put this whole apple in your mouth.’
Turns out he could.
It’s just that he couldn’t get it back out.
So, we’re all laughin’ our asses off, and Dicky is laughin’ and droolin’ and chokin’ some, when Mr Taboli blows the recess whistle.
We all file back inside to our desks.
Dicky’s sittin’ there with his gigantic mouth stretched to the max, buck teeth clamped on that apple, just starin’ down at page turdy eight, droolin’ all over his workbook.
We’re all lookin’ straight ahead.
Then Dicky begins to get a little red and choke.
I gotta say, he held it together pretty good, not bein’ able to swallow and all, but once he commenced gagging, it was pretty much all over.
Remarkably, Mr Taboli was pretty good with a knife. He leaped over Bart’s oversized legs hangin’ in the aisle, and proceeded to perform an applectomy right there in class.
So, he was a hero…….for a few minutes.

It was only a matter of weeks that his rosy outlook of teaching the children of the trees would take a turn.
The event that became the clincher to his destiny was our zip guns. Little simply made ‘guns’ from clothes pins, springs and pebbles.
Just enough zip to cause a welt.
A well placed shot destined for a girl’s hind end…unless it was Francis….she’d take it from you and feed it to our own hind end.
Well, after all the lunchtime screaming and running, Mr Taboli rounded us up and just sat at his desk for several minutes.
Then calmly gathered up our zipguns and placed them on the floor in a little pile and commenced to jump up and down on them, screaming something in a language other than English.
Then he strolled over to his desk, sat, put his head down, and started beating the surface of it with both fists.
Fascinating.
We didn’t have school for a couple days after that.
The Wadsworth years would follow.



I bumped in to Dicky a decade or so later.
‘It’s Richard now’

The poor chap had been working in the woods.
If you are short on brains, the woods are not the place to work. It’s bad enough if yer quick and sharp.
Seems Dicky had run a chain saw up his hand, right between his fingers, up to his wrist.
They didn’t do much for him in the patchwork dept.
At first, seein’ him at a distance, I’d thought, geez, Dicky is a Trekie, showin’ me his Vulcan wave.

Wonder how they're all doin' now..............






*The Wadsworth Years*

Mrs Wadsworth was our teacher for a couple years…..actually 2 ½ years, as she stepped in when Mr Taboli made his infamous exit.
The white coats didn’t come to get him, but after the zip gun affair we never saw Mr Taboli again…our first conquest.

Mrs Wadsworth was different.
She was old, and done with it all, but folks gathered around her and conned her out of retirement.
Turns out she’d run a concentration camp of grades six thru eight back in Milton-Freewater for centuries.
Quite the disciplinarian, as she could still wield a bamboo rod with the deftness of a samurai.
And those high top orthopedic oxfords that housed her rheumatoid ankles were nothin’ to mess with either.
She stood about five six, and weighed in at oh say 97 lbs, but still had a presence about her.
I got her to smile a couple times, but usually she wore this sour look, like she just got fed some horse shit, of which we tried.
She had what was sometimes referred to as denture face, some real jowls, kinda looked like Deputy Dawg’s gramma….and she used it to her advantage, lookin’ down on you thru her bifocals.
Eddy P, the terror of turd grade, was putty in her gnarly hands, and even his little brother, satan of second grade, was no match.

So things were as quiet as they could be in those two years.

We all respected her, and I even admired her, and I’d like to think she got a charge outta me, as she would single me out as an example for others not to follow.
When she gave me her special attention, I’d notice her neck would commence to sorta blossom into a rather deep crimson beginning at the start of her collar and creeping up to her chin.
This aurora was gradual, and mesmerizing.

Grammar was her specialty, and diagramming sentences on the black board was what we all did, over and over…past participles and me became friends, as we both found our little special place in the parse tree of life.

But the second room in that school held my fond attention.
Miss Dickerson taught kindergarten thru second grade.
She had a dimpled smile that would melt me into deep daydreams of her and I.
I’d sit thru history class, fanaticizing about us goin’ campin’. Her lookin’ on with admiration of me building a camp fire with nothin’ but my woodsman’s prowess, and then skinny dippin’ and then, well things got sorta grey from there, so I’d be stuck on replay, filling in more details with each re-run of my boyish manliness and her absolute womanliness, then fog, then back to camping, swimming, fog….sometimes we’d just lay on the bank after skinny dippin’,all naked, basking in the sun, fixated on each other’s genitals…but there was always that darn fog…….



*The Mrs Nelson half year….aka The Half Nelson*

She tried to be nice.
‘You can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.’
Killer bees

The white coats did come for her


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## horseless carriage (Sep 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> We used to get belted with the Tawse...it was very painful and would leave bruising..and sometimes cuts.. it was a thick short leather strap. Some sadistic teachers would soak theirs in vinegar to make it extra tough..


At my catholic grammar school, we were taught that God is Love. Just to make sure that we got that message it was beaten into us with a very thick leather strap. To this day I'm convinced that catholic schools contributed to the ****** fetish of pain. Not my cup of tea though. The deputy headmaster, who administered the corporal punishment was a brutal sadist even if he was a priest.


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

horseless carriage said:


> At my catholic grammar school, we were taught that God is Love. Just to make sure that we got that message it was beaten into us with a very thick leather strap. To this day I'm convinced that catholic schools contributed to the ****** fetish of pain. Not my cup of tea though. The deputy headmaster, who administered the corporal punishment was a brutal sadist even if he was a priest.


yep same here.. but I certainly didn't turn into any corporal punishment Fetishist.. I had enough being meted out to me at home as well... to find any of that remotely erotic..

The worst one of our teachers' was Head of Maths..  most other teachers kept the strap in their desk drawer, he carried his over his shoulder and under his jacket, so he would lash out with it anywhere..in corridors, in the playground etc..

ETA my mother was raised by Catholic Nuns, and educated in a Convent.. they got beatings every day...


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## JaniceM (Sep 2, 2022)

Two teachers in high school often drank coffee during class.  A bus driver smoked big stinky cigars.. even when the weather was too cold to open the windows on the bus.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 2, 2022)

I knew plenty of teachers who were similar to what has been mentioned so I'll go on the other side of the spectrum. Once I got past around 5th grade I had several teachers who took personal interests in their students. My 7th grade year was interesting. Nothing tragic but my grades fluctuated wildly. One it my teachers would often pull me aside to make sure I was ok (not regarding my home life as much as my mind) and often assured me that everyone has doubts and insecurities. She assigned me "homework" to do repirts on Simon she Garfunkel song lyrics. I learned a lot about life from her which helped me later on. I know that many other teachers helped other kids in other similar ways. I'm not sure if teachers now are even allowed to show such concerns for their students now for many reasons, many no fault of their own


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## Pepper (Sep 2, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> Two teachers in high school often drank coffee during class.  A bus driver smoked big stinky cigars.. even when the weather was too cold to open the windows on the bus.


I shouldn't haved wowed above.  I remember 5th & 6th grades some girl, teacher's pet, actually brewing coffee in the room & serving the teacher, Her Royal Heinee.


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## JaniceM (Sep 2, 2022)

Oh, and the bus driver that smoked cigars also had an affair with a high school girl and didn't even get fired.. he was middle-aged, married, with kids.  But she was expelled.


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## jujube (Sep 2, 2022)

My 4th grade teacher had a mission in life to suck the joy and love of learning out of any student who had the misfortune to be in her class.

I was on her sh*t -list and had a bleeding stomach ulcer by spring.

There's a group of my schoolmates who reminisce on Facebook and when her name comes up,  a collective shudder can be felt from coast-to-coast and in one foreign country.


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## Barbara971 (Sep 2, 2022)

I’m from the US and there was absolutely no corporal punishment I can recall in any grade of school. One thing that stays with me to this day, though, is Mr K in the 6th grade getting mad about something pretty minor with a student, Steve. He called him a ‘dumb farmer’ and made him cry. Geez…it was western New York, full of second & third generation Swedes and they were all farmers, so that probably had an impact on not only him. The humiliation this child must have suffered haunts me to this day.


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## JaniceM (Sep 2, 2022)

Barbara971 said:


> I’m from the US and there was absolutely no corporal punishment I can recall in any grade of school. One thing that stays with me to this day, though, is Mr K in the 6th grade getting mad about something pretty minor with a student, Steve. He called him a ‘dumb farmer’ and made him cry. Geez…it was western New York, full of second & third generation Swedes and they were all farmers, so that probably had an impact on not only him. The humiliation this child must have suffered haunts me to this day.


Well at least they weren't beating on kids.  But humiliating kids isn't ok either!!

Oh, I recall one teacher often wrote students' minor misdeeds on the blackboard- if they didn't finish their homework, etc.  I guess he thought it would embarrass them.. especially if it was on a day when parents came into the classroom.


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## Pinky (Sep 2, 2022)

The hurling chalk and chalkboard erasers .. whacking student's heads or hands with a wooden ruler. I doubt
that sort of thing is allowed today.


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## Bretrick (Sep 2, 2022)

I disliked school and had a particular loathing for English.
Shakespeare and all the rest.
One particular year I would never do my homework, English classes on Fridays and Mondays.
My English teacher said he would make me do my homework and gave me six cuts on both hands every Monday morning.
It did not work because I never done my homework.
So for a whole school year, every Monday morning - six cuts. I skipped a few Mondays, going up into the hills to catch Tiger Snakes and Echidnas. That teacher was not there the next year and I never received the cane again.


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## jujube (Sep 2, 2022)

We had paddling in my elementary school.  The individual teachers could paddle and the principal (who was a terrifying middle-aged woman) had a large paddle called "The Board of Education" that she applied to "The Seat of Knowledge".  She only paddled boys, though.  Girls received a "chat".

One day in third grade, I got put out in the hall for some unremembered misdemeanor and she happened to be patrolling the halls.  She "invited" me down to her office for "a little chat".  I cried so hard, I made myself sick and threw up all over the place.  My mother had to be called to bring me home for the day.  

I still see her in my nightmares.


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## Remy (Sep 2, 2022)

Barbara971 said:


> I’m from the US and there was absolutely no corporal punishment I can recall in any grade of school. One thing that stays with me to this day, though, is Mr K in the 6th grade getting mad about something pretty minor with a student, Steve. He called him a ‘dumb farmer’ and made him cry. Geez…it was western New York, full of second & third generation Swedes and they were all farmers, so that probably had an impact on not only him. The humiliation this child must have suffered haunts me to this day.


Yes, those words can remain. I was humiliated by a teacher in front of student's that I couldn't do the pull ups because "you eat too many cookies." She also pointed and yelled at me one day at the pool "get out, you are not allowed in the deep pool." Again in front of others. 

My brother, who is left handed, had a teacher who tried to force him and another classmate to write with their right hand. My mother found out and went to the teacher. I don't know how big of a scene she made, but it stopped.


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

Pinky said:


> The hurling chalk and chalkboard erasers .. whacking student's heads or hands with a wooden ruler. I doubt
> that sort of thing is allowed today.


It certinly is not, a teacher would find themselves in Court today.. trouble is it's gone too far the other way. Teachers are just not allowed to chastise kids at all, and of course kids take full advantage of that and have little respect in many places for teachers..


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## Mizmo (Sep 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> We used to get belted with the Tawse...it was very painful and would leave bruising..and sometimes cuts.. it was a thick short leather strap. Some sadistic teachers would soak theirs in vinegar to make it extra tough..



Ah yes I got that couple of times for giggling in class.....boys were teasing us...... sadistic math teacher Mr Smith by name...he would aim for pinky edge of hand..hurt like hell.


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

Mizmo said:


> Ah yes I got that couple of times for giggling in class.....boys were teasing us...... sadistic math teacher Mr Smith by name...he would aim for pinky edge of hand..hurt like hell.


OMG were you at my school?  The sadist head of Maths at my school with the belt under his jacket was also Mr SMITH!!


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## Mizmo (Sep 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> OMG were you at my school?  The sadist head of Maths at my school with the belt under his jacket was also Mr SMITH!!


Oh how strange maybe a descendant. 
Holly dahlink....remember  I am your mother...my Mr Smith is long dead..I think!!


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## hollydolly (Sep 2, 2022)

Mizmo said:


> Oh how strange maybe a descendant.
> Holly dahlink....remember  I am your mother...my Mr Smith is long dead..I think!!


Well TBH I think my Mr Smith will be long dead too.. when I was about 14 he must have been well in his 50's.. he was a Giant of a Man with a big red face...


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## Medusa (Sep 2, 2022)

Remy said:


> Yes, those words can remain. I was humiliated by a teacher in front of student's that I couldn't do the pull ups because "you eat too many cookies." She also pointed and yelled at me one day at the pool "get out, you are not allowed in the deep pool." Again in front of others.
> 
> My brother, who is left handed, had a teacher who tried to force him and another classmate to write with their right hand. My mother found out and went to the teacher. I don't know how big of a scene she made, but it stopped.


Good for your mother!


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## Medusa (Sep 2, 2022)

My second grade teacher used to pinch kids' cheeks, _really hard_. It only happened to me once, but hurt enough to make me cry.

My husband went to Catholic school where the nuns were apparently brutal; as an example, one of them picked a boy up bodily and literally threw him out the window.  (They threw erasers too.)  Freaking chilling to think about.


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## Mizmo (Sep 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> Well TBH I think my Mr Smith will be long dead too.. when I was about 14 he must have been well in his 50's.. he was a Giant of a Man with a big red face...


Hmm..well my Mr Smith  in looking back now probably would have been in his early 30's . 
Tall and actually quite handsome then .
He was my math teacher for 3years so would have been late 1940's . 
I saw him a few years later while on a River Clyde boat trip to Rothesay. We were on our way back to Glasgow.
We looked at each other and while I recognized him right away he was not sure about me as I was 15 when I left his class but he followed me around the boat and stared a lot. The girlfriend I was with commented on it so I filled her in on his bad behaviour.


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## PamfromTx (Sep 2, 2022)

Students that misbehaved were paddled with a wooden paddle.  I heard that it was painful.  I will never forget a particular girl that got paddled in front of the class; she cried in pain.  

And then there was the notorious Mr. Haby in Junior High.  He obviously enjoyed paddling the students.


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## PamfromTx (Sep 2, 2022)




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## Della (Sep 2, 2022)

jujube said:


> One day in third grade, I got put out in the hall for some unremembered misdemeanor and she happened to be patrolling the halls. She "invited" me down to her office for "a little chat". I cried so hard, I made myself sick and threw up all over the place. My mother had to be called to bring me home for the day.
> 
> I still see her in my nightmares.


What on earth was this little chat about?  That's the most horrific story yet.


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## Mizmo (Sep 2, 2022)

Medusa said:


> My second grade teacher used to pinch kids cheeks, _really hard_. It only happened to me once, but hurt enough to make me cry.
> 
> My husband went to Catholic school where the nuns were apparently brutal; as as example, on of them picked a boy up bodily and literally threw him out the window.  (They threw erasers too.)  Freaking chilling to think about.



How awful .
 My mother who was taught by nuns too in a convent told us stories of how one of the nuns would hit them on the knuckles with a ruler and another used her rosary beads which were those huge  wooden things from long ago  and hit them on the palm of their hands with it bunched up.


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## Lawrence (Sep 2, 2022)

I went to public schools in Iowa and Colorado and what I remember is more basic. I remember having to sit in a corner of the classroom a few times maybe a couple or three or so with a dunce cap on. Being sent to the principal's office and having him talk to me about my behavior like the time in the playground at recess while playing a girl was swinging her purse a me and I swung back and gave her a black eye. We made up and me and my parents went to her house and had supper with her parents. I was able to be nice to her the time I was there, but she was so bossy that after the make-up I would avoid her at all costs.


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## Tish (Sep 2, 2022)

We got the cane in school if we screwed up.


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## Lewkat (Sep 2, 2022)

Medusa said:


> Good for your mother!


When I started school, my mother made it patently clear to the powers that be, that by no means, were they ever to try and change me over to being right handed.  Worked.


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## Packerjohn (Sep 2, 2022)

I'm on the record here for being a "rough and tough" country kid.  I went to a 1 room school house.  Got 40 straps one day; 20 on each hand.  Then 3 days later another 40 straps; 20 on each hand.  No complains, I was a real bad kid and I really deserved those straps.  But today I just a nice guy because a teacher cared enough to teach me what was wrong and what was right.  

Today the kids are cuddled by society and often grow up confused and not knowing the bounds that they can/cannot cross.  Too bad but crime is up, depression is up and suicide is up too.  There is a lot of confusion out there with a lot of people being "hammered" into discipline by the politically correct wing of society.  I just ignore them since the politically correct are often incorrect.


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## Medusa (Sep 2, 2022)

Lawrence said:


> I went to public schools in Iowa and Colorado and what I remember is more basic. I remember having to sit in a corner of the classroom a few times maybe a couple or three or so with a dunce cap on. Being sent to the principal's office and having him talk to me about my behavior like the time in the playground at recess while playing a girl was swinging her purse a me and I swung back and gave her a black eye. We made up and me and my parents went to her house and had supper with her parents. I was able to be nice to her the time I was there, but she was so bossy that after the make-up I would avoid her at all costs.


Well, sounds like you handled the situation as well as you could, especially for a young person.


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## Medusa (Sep 2, 2022)

Mizmo said:


> Hmm..well my Mr Smith  in looking back now probably would have been in his early 30's .
> Tall and actually quite handsome then .
> He was my math teacher for 3years so would have been late 1940's .
> I saw him a few years later while on a River Clyde boat trip to Rothesay. We were on our way back to Glasgow.
> We looked at each other and while I recognized him right away he was not sure about me as I was 15 when I left his class but he followed me around the boat and stared a lot. The girlfriend I was with commented on it so I filled her in on his bad behaviour.


Yikes.  That's creepy.  :/


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## Sassycakes (Sep 2, 2022)

I WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL AND AS TAUGHT BY NUN's YOU CAN GUESS WHAT THEY DID TO US.


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## David777 (Sep 2, 2022)

Here in California at suburban public schools even during the 1950s, there was never any corporal punishment.  Cannot recall anything teachers did that would in this era might be considered inappropriate. During my Kindergarten through 9th grade years only recall a couple students in all the schools (not just my classes) I went to that were not totally Caucasian, a result of racist segregation real estate and bank mortgage practices of that era.


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## PamfromTx (Sep 2, 2022)

How I wish my sister would write a book, specifically on how she was punished.

She was placed in a book closet for the entire school day.  It was dark and cold.  No restroom breaks either. 

So much more to tell. 

I will never understand why my parents were ignored in their pleas.


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## jujube (Sep 2, 2022)

Della said:


> What on earth was this little chat about?  That's the most horrific story yet.


I doubt the little chat was much more than being admonished strongly for whatever it was that I did (I can't remember what she said....I was too busy being scared....).

  Mostly, it was just that she was one mega- 
scary dude (and a lot of us past students agree that there might have been a little more "dude" than "dudette" in her makeup, if you get my drift).  She would have made a great cinematic prison warden.  

Thank goodness, except for the principal and the 4th grade teacher, my other teachers I had during my 6 years in the grade-school building were great.


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## C50 (Sep 2, 2022)

My picture is probably still posted on the bulletin boards in the teachers lounges as public enemy #1.  I received most of the punishments mentioned and deserved every one.

A creative one was my 5th. grade teacher tying me into my desk chair, I just couldn't stay seated.   It started with yarn but eventually moved on to rope that I couldn't break.  She would even leave me tied in my chair when she took the rest of the class out to recess.

 Could you imagine that in this day?


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## C50 (Sep 2, 2022)

PamfromTx said:


> View attachment 237422


That's a sissy paddle, our teachers paddles always had holes drilled in them.  I couldn't count the number of swats I got, even bus drivers would swat us.


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## C50 (Sep 2, 2022)

Here's another that would never happen today.  In seventh or eighth grade I thru paper out the school bus window.  The driver stopped the bus and told me to go pick it up, and then she drove away leaving me about five miles from home.


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## Nathan (Sep 2, 2022)

In parochial school any staff could(and would) beat you with a leather belt for typical infractions- being late to or from recess, being out-of bounds(like in prison).     In public school the gym teachers or the Boy's Vice Principal could beat you with a leather belt for ditching assembly or smoking on the athletic field, etc.


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## Alligatorob (Sep 2, 2022)

Had a 7th grade art teacher tell me a ceramic seagull head I made was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.

But I got even I glued the drawer in her desk shut.  This was just one of many crazy things she did to the kids, but we gave it back to her many times over.  A few weeks after critiquing my art she disappeared and was replaced, without explanation to  us.  Looking back I feel a bit bad about how I behaved, I think she had a breakdown or something.  Her behavior became quite erratic.  We didn't help much.  7th graders can be mean.

I think I still have that seagull head somewhere, my mother saved it.  Last I looked at it I decided the art teacher wasn't far wrong.

Was paddled many a time with one that looked a lot like @PamfromTx  's picture.  Probably deserved it...


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## Teacher Terry (Sep 2, 2022)

No physical discipline in public schools in Wisconsin in the 50-60’s either. These stories are horrible.


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## Gaer (Sep 2, 2022)

PamfromTx said:


> View attachment 237422


Yes!  This was called the "apple board".  It was an oak board used on anyone who didn't obey the teacher.
I got this at age five in first grade whenever I wrote with my left hand. (several times a day)  But, not on my bottom. 
 She would hit my hand and draw blood.  Until my Mother had a little "talk" with my teacher.


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## MarkinPhx (Sep 2, 2022)

I told this story in a prior baseball post but I like telling it so will tell it again. We had a teacher who liked to grab students by the shoulder and pinch down hard on the nerves there. One day he caught me trading food at the cafeteria so he grabbed my neck like that and led me by the neck to the stage that was in the cafeteria and eat alone up there in front of all the students. My neck hurt for the rest of the day. This teachers name was Mr. Gentry. Baseball fans might remember his son, Gary Gentry. It was at that time my life long hatred of the NY Mets began and I became a Baltimore Orioles fan because soon after that the Mets faced the Orioles in the 69 World Series. I once met Gary Gentry and told him the story and he laughed and said "Sounds like my dad". We also had another teacher named Mr. Patton (no relation). I was never in his class but our homeroom class in 6th grade was next to his homeroom and every now and then we could all here a thump on the wall. It was him pinning a student up against the wall.


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## DebraMae (Sep 2, 2022)

I can't remember ever being disciplined at school.  Guess I got more than my fair share of that at home.


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## C50 (Sep 2, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> Had a 7th grade art teacher tell me a ceramic seagull head I made was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.
> 
> But I got even I glued the drawer in her desk shut.  This was just one of many crazy things she did to the kids, but we gave it back to her many times over.  A few weeks after critiquing my art she disappeared and was replaced, without explanation to  us.  Looking back I feel a bit bad about how I behaved, I think she had a breakdown or something.  Her behavior became quite erratic.  We didn't help much.  7th graders can be mean


I have a similar story and it's nothing I'm proud of.

I was changing my grade in the teachers book and the teacher caught me, came up behind me and pulled me down onto the floor.  We started scuffeling and I kicked him in the balls, a few weeks later he was gone.  My English teacher then berated me in front of the class for causing him to have a breakdown and leave his job.

Not one of my proudest moments,  something I've always regretted.


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## Della (Sep 3, 2022)

C50 said:


> I have a similar story and it's nothing I'm proud of.
> 
> I was changing my grade in the teachers book and the teacher caught me, came up behind me and pulled me down onto the floor.  We started scuffeling and I kicked him in the balls, a few weeks later he was gone.  My English teacher then berated me in front of the class for causing him to have a breakdown and leave his job.
> 
> Not one of my proudest moments,  something I've always regretted.


Well he should never have thrown a kid to the floor and the English teacher should never have tried to make a student feel responsible for a breakdown which had probably been coming for years from all sorts of outside reasons, nothing to do with you. 

 This guy wasn't meant to teach, think of all the future students you saved from lasting harm!


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## Fyrefox (Sep 3, 2022)

When I was in high school, it seems that the gym teacher’s master key set was stolen.  They couldn’t find the keys or the culprit, so the phys. ed. teacher decided to punish _all _of the male students, presumably in the hopes of getting someone who knew to break, and rat the culprit out.

We were punished by being made to stand at rigid attention for the entire duration of gym class for several gym classes to follow.  A few kids actually fainted.  I can remember feeling slightly lightheaded at times, plus bored out of my skull.  I learned to flex different muscle groups and change my posture imperceptibly in the hopes of maintaining blood flow to my brain.

After several gym classes spent this way, the group punishments stopped without further explanation.  I don’t know if they found the damn key set, or if enough parents complained to stop the punishments.  I do know I’ll always remember the experience, and the unjustness of it all…


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## hollydolly (Sep 3, 2022)

C50 said:


> I have a similar story and it's nothing I'm proud of.
> 
> I was changing my grade in the teachers book and the teacher caught me, came up behind me and pulled me down onto the floor.  We started scuffeling and I kicked him in the balls, a few weeks later he was gone.  My English teacher then berated me in front of the class for causing him to have a breakdown and leave his job.
> 
> Not one of my proudest moments,  something I've always regretted.


I agree with Della... get rid of that Regret .. you were defending yourself from an Adult who had just attacked you, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, that man should never have been in that job in the first place...you did everyone else a favour !


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## fuzzybuddy (Sep 3, 2022)

I went to a small Catholic school. There were only 23 kids in my class. I had nuns. And they were like ninjas with a ruler. But that was only in early grade school. In high school, we had a nun, who was rather strong. If she smelled cigarette smoke, she had no problem walking into the "Boys' room. I remember when she found a repeated smoker. With her left arm, she lifted him off the floor, by grabbing his shirt. And with her right, she punched him. We called her "the enforcer". But that behavior was rare. We've knew the nuns for 12 years. We knew the given names. And, in those days, if a nun called your parents about your behavior, you got hell from your parents-big time.


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## Gary O' (Sep 3, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> Had a 7th grade art teacher tell me a ceramic seagull head I made was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.
> 
> But I got even I glued the drawer in her desk shut. This was just one of many crazy things she did to the kids, but we gave it back to her many times over. A few weeks after critiquing my art she disappeared and was replaced, without explanation to us. Looking back I feel a bit bad about how I behaved, I think she had a breakdown or something. Her behavior became quite erratic. We didn't help much. 7th graders can be mean.


My brother


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## C50 (Sep 3, 2022)

Della said:


> Well he should never have thrown a kid to the floor and the English teacher should never have tried to make a student feel responsible for a breakdown which had probably been coming for years from all sorts of outside reasons, nothing to do with you.
> 
> This guy wasn't meant to teach, think of all the future students you saved from lasting harm!


Nice of you to say that but I don't agree.  He was a new teacher and a wrestling coach and I think getting physical was his go too method of discipline, and with a kid like me physical dominance was the only thing that was going to work.  I was a punk and he was just a guy trying to do his job, I absolutly should feel regret since I was the cause of the entire incident.


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## Been There (Sep 3, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> We used to get belted with the Tawse...it was very painful and would leave bruising..and sometimes cuts.. it was a thick short leather strap. Some sadistic teachers would soak theirs in vinegar to make it extra tough..


That’s not discipline. That’s child abuse of the worse kind. Even today, any man that would hit me with that weapon would be walking funny for weeks to come.


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## Been There (Sep 3, 2022)

Nathan said:


> In parochial school any staff could(and would) beat you with a leather belt for typical infractions- being late to or from recess, being out-of bounds(like in prison).     In public school the gym teachers or the Boy's Vice Principal could beat you with a leather belt for ditching assembly or smoking on the athletic field, etc.


Some of these posts sound more like child abuse and not discipline. I spent 12 years in public school and some kids got spanked, but I never heard of any kid getting a beating. If some of this stuff that went on back in the day, went on today, we may have some teachers in jail. My dad, before he died, gave me a whooping when I was 7 for saying that “new” word I learned at school that day. The next day he apologized. He said he should have just talked to me about it and why we don’t use that word.


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> It certinly is not, a teacher would find themselves in Court today..


Not necessarily.. there are still numerous states that permit it  https://www.infoplease.com/us/education/corporal-punishment-public-schools-state

It's just plain sickening.  And worse yet when parents/caregivers don't have the right to object.  
When my kids attended schools where it was permitted, I was perfectly clear:  lay a hand or anything else on one of my kids and you won't live to see the next day.


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## hollydolly (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> Not necessarily.. there are still numerous states that permit it  https://www.infoplease.com/us/education/corporal-punishment-public-schools-state
> 
> It's just plain sickening.  And worse yet when parents/caregivers don't have the right to object.
> When my kids attended schools where it was permitted, I was perfectly clear:  lay a hand or anything else on one of my kids and you won't live to see the next day.


Not in the UK..... it isn't permitted.. absolutely anywhere


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> Not in the UK..... it isn't permitted.. absolutely anywhere


Good for the UK!!!  Glad to hear that!!


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## Nathan (Sep 3, 2022)

Been There said:


> *Some of these posts sound more like child abuse and not discipline. *I spent 12 years in public school and some kids got spanked, but I never heard of any kid getting a beating. If some of this stuff that went on back in the day, went on today, we may have some teachers in jail. My dad, before he died, gave me a whooping when I was 7 for saying that “new” word I learned at school that day. The next day he apologized. He said he should have just talked to me about it and why we don’t use that word.


Well with a couple exceptions it was(is) my belief that the physical punishment was not justified for the offense, and more driven by anger of the punisher.


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

Nathan said:


> Well with a couple exceptions it was(is) my belief that the physical punishment was not justified for the offense, and more driven by anger of the punisher.


In my opinion, teachers/principals that go for this crap are nothing but bullies. 

Additionally,
First, they don't seem to grasp kids of all ages are human beings;
Second, do these idiots really believe that type of environment is conducive to learning?  I'm sure there are nitwits who'd say 'well, the kids should not DO anything wrong!'  but it still causes a school environment to be one of fear rather than education. 

Members who posted mentioned various locations- but much different than what I knew of.
As one example, when I lived in California and had an elementary-school student as a neighbor, I was told the KINDERGARTEN teacher walked up and down the aisles in the classroom with a 'paddle,' and frequently gave children (exact words) 'the beatings of their lives.'
Another:  a guy slightly older than I who went through school in Iowa also talked about being beaten in school.
And when I was a student in NY, and there weren't any bad kids in the school, I duly noted the principal singled out wimpy, withdrawn students.


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## Nathan (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> In my opinion, teachers/principals that go for this crap are nothing but bullies.
> *First, they don't seem to grasp kids of all ages are human beings*


I believe that was the crux of the issue, the kids were treated more like animals back them.  Of course now it's understood that not only kids but animals respond to kindness rather than cruelty better while being trained.


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

Nathan said:


> I believe that was the crux of the issue, the kids were treated more like animals back them.  Of course now it's understood that not only kids but animals respond to kindness rather than cruelty better while being trained.


If only the "backward" states that still allow it would wise up..


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## Nathan (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> If only the "backward" states that still allow it would wise up..


Those states seem to be caught up in a _renaissance_ and resurgence of post civil war attitudes and 'values'.


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## Della (Sep 3, 2022)

Look at Mississippi.  It's usually the last state academically and it's second to most in whippings.
How's that working for you, Mississippi?


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

Della said:


> Look at Mississippi.  It's usually the last state academically and it's second to most in whippings.
> How's that working for you, Mississippi?


Which is first- Texas or Louisiana?  (states with high rates of murder and executions... violence breeds violence..)


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corporal-punishment-statistics_n_4262304 (from 2013)

Interesting they say 'spanked' or 'hit' when what they really mean is beating with boards..


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## hollydolly (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corporal-punishment-statistics_n_4262304 (from 2013)
> 
> Interesting they say 'spanked' or 'hit' when what they really mean is beating with boards..


do you realise that link is from almost 10 years ago ?


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> do you realise that link is from almost 10 years ago ?


Yes, I added it's from 2013.  Didn't see anything more recent.  But I doubt if the situation has improved.


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## hollydolly (Sep 3, 2022)

https://theconversation.com/school-...erywhere-around-the-world-except-in-us-118236


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## hollydolly (Sep 3, 2022)

Either School teachers in the US are extremely Brave or extremely stupid. To mete out corporal punishment to children, who in all likelihood have a mama or papa who own a gun or guns.. is beyond any kind of comprehension


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## JaniceM (Sep 3, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> Either School teachers in the US are extremely Brave or extremely stupid. To mete out corporal punishment to children, who in all likelihood have a mama or papa who own a gun or guns.. is beyond any kind of comprehension


Maybe that's what it would take for them to see the light-  an irate parent coming after them.  
They certainly wouldn't have liked the consequences if they'd pulled that crap on _my _kids.. although I probably wouldn't have shot anybody.  

Making matters worse, stories that made the news re:  the 'offenses' the kids committed that resulted in this kind of _abuse:_
Two kindergartners were 'snickering.'
A first-grader 'circled an answer that she should have underline.' (parents sued the school and lost).
Kindergartener was late for school.
In one state, it's considered appropriate 'punishment' if a kid addresses a teacher as Mr. or Mrs. LastName instead of Ma'am or Sir. 
A teenager was late for school because she was involved in a car accident and obeyed the law by not leaving the scene of an accident. 
At a school I attended, two teenage girls walked across the street to the store to buy candy during lunch hour without asking permission.  

While child abuse is never acceptable, these incidents show it's not out-of-control unruly kids that are subjected to what a California teacher referred to as 'barbaric treatment.'


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## Della (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> Which is first- Texas or Louisiana?  (states with high rates of murder and executions... violence breeds violence..)


You guessed it Janice.  Texas does the most "hitting."


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## win231 (Sep 3, 2022)

In 1st grade, a 300 lb. teacher/hog got mad at me because I wasn't paying attention; I was bored.
She grabbed me by the arm & tossed me in a corner & encouraged the other kids to laugh at me.  Big mistake on her part.
I always believed revenge is a dish best served cold.
I won't say how I paid her back, but she ended up leaving the school.  And I was transferred to a different school.  I never asked why I was kicked out of that school & no one told me, but when I got older, I figured maybe school administrators thought she was unfit for teaching & had it coming.


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## Nathan (Sep 3, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> Yes, I added it's from 2013.  Didn't see anything more recent.  But I doubt if the situation has improved.


In reading the link the list of states looks legitimate.


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## palides2021 (Sep 3, 2022)

Gary O' said:


> We had the bamboo rod
> Never got hit with it, but made to hold it and wait in another room once.
> Several others actually got clubbed with it.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the laugh, @Gary O' ! That was awesome!


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## C50 (Sep 3, 2022)

When I was in middle school and teachers were looking for a way to discipline me they created what was called inner school suspension, lucky me.  They put a desk in a small storage room and I had to spend three days sitting in there doing asdignments.  They left the door open so at class changes everyone could see me, I guess they were trying to set and example.  Two of my buddies got caught throwing things at me as they went by so they each got to enjoy they same punishment.  

Certainly couldn't do that to a kid today, though it did us no harm except make us scared straight from boredom.


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## Michael Z (Sep 3, 2022)

The older teachers I had in elementary school (which would be well over 100 now) were quite respectable. There was no corporal punishment either. I remember they did not tolerate any child saying a bad word and they taught us to respect people of all colors, which was a very good lesson that stuck with me.

The one very young teacher I had in 5th grade, although she acted the enlightened progressive, would in fact be demeaning to some students (including me), had a few "favorite" students, engaged in sexually suggestive jokes with her favorites, and even tell ethnic jokes. I did not respect her at all. I remember my neighbor friend, a nice quiet girl, had to do a presentation that was taped and she froze up. The teacher kept yelling at her to speak up. The more she yelled the more scared the girl got - this went on for at least 5 or 10 minutes. I sure hope they don't allow teachers like this anymore!


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## Sunny (Sep 5, 2022)

Corporal punishment is totally off limits in most civilized locations. But I wonder about other punishments. Kids used to have to go stand in the corner. And I don't know if the dunce stool or dunce cap were real or just tools of fiction; I hope they were!

But some things do need "punishment," and need to be stopped. For instance, what if a kid starts using racist taunts against another kid? How should the teacher handle that?


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## JaniceM (Sep 5, 2022)

Sunny said:


> Corporal punishment is totally off limits in most civilized locations. But I wonder about other punishments. Kids used to have to go stand in the corner. And I don't know if the dunce stool or dunce cap were real or just tools of fiction; I hope they were!
> 
> But some things do need "punishment," and need to be stopped. For instance, what if a kid starts using racist taunts against another kid? How should the teacher handle that?


One of my long-ago friends said the dunce thing did occur in her school.


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## Pepper (Sep 5, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> Either School teachers in the US are extremely Brave or extremely stupid. To mete out corporal punishment to children, who in all likelihood have a mama or papa who own a gun or guns.. is beyond any kind of comprehension


Any nutcase who threatens a teacher with a gun is the kind of nutcase who approves of corporal punishment and probably walloped the kid for being walloped by the teacher.


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## JaniceM (Sep 5, 2022)

Pepper said:


> Any nutcase who threatens a teacher with a gun is the kind of nutcase who approves of corporal punishment and *probably walloped the kid for being walloped by the teacher.*


I've heard a few of these, too.  And yet people don't understand why they are so angry?


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## hollydolly (Sep 5, 2022)

Pepper said:


> Any nutcase who threatens a teacher with a gun is the kind of nutcase who approves of corporal punishment and probably walloped the kid for being walloped by the teacher.


I wouldn't be so sure... someone battering your child would send some of the most mild mannered  parents into a rage... and if they don't mete out corporal punishment at home, they'll be even more angry that some bullying teacher has attacked their child..


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## Fyrefox (Sep 8, 2022)

I doubt that assigning an _entire class _to after-school detention would fly today.  The only time that I ever received detention was part of a whole class punishment when the teacher perceived us as being too noisy or some similar heinous sin.  The amount of negative energy that filled that detention room after school could have overturned empires.  I don’t think that the teacher ever assigned an entire class to detention again…


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