I cannot say that getting “the belt” on occasion when I was growing up didn’t make me try really hard to be a good girl. Try as I might however, I can say with absolute certainty, that the boards of education wielded by Miss Sutton, Mrs. Ferguson, Mr. Morton, Mrs. Garnet and some mean bitch whose name I’ve blocked out, did nothing but make my ass smart make me a better smart-ass.
Mr. Morton’s paddle was nicknamed “The Whistler.” The sucker had holes drilled in it!
The Whistler
Yeah, I got paddled in school. A lot. Not in private with a same gender witness, but standing out in the hall in front of God and everybody. That was the S.O.P. and everyone accepted it. I’ve told the stories about getting my mouth washed out with soap and getting busted for going into the teacher’s lounge and buying a Coca Cola to share with my so-called friends.
I was a good girl, really I was.
This Dallas Morning News article written by Jacquielynn Floyd brought a story to my attention that hit a little too close to home for me not to comment on it. Plus, I am full on board with her brand of sarcasm. It’s a hot topic, for sure. Just like all of the other loaded, politically charged, dumb-ass topics that surround our public school system. Getting twisted into a knot over what people should believe is a stupid waste of time. Believe whatever you want. But when my tax dollars are being spent to supposedly educate the brightest and best of the future, damn it, I want my money’s worth and paddling students is NOT the biggest bang for my buck!
Teachers do not have time to mess around with students, who for whatever reason, can’t pull it together long enough to learn something or at least shut up so everyone else can. BUT – and that is a big but – whether you believe sparing the rod spoils the child or that corporal punishment is borderline abuse or an ineffective, outdated method of punishment, public schools are NOT THE PLACE for it. Teachers need better options. They need administrators who are visible, available and capable of maintaining discipline with a better response to disruptive behavior than making a student bend over and kiss their ass goodbye.
The Classic: High Impact – Optimized Grip
Child abuse, neglect and despicable, unspeakable acts committed against children are not a new development and our response to them has NOT improved enough. We must do more. You cannot beat sense into people. Obviously beating the devil out of them doesn’t work either.
Honie Briggs 
I was given a paddle when I took up a classroom once …this group had run off 2 teachers before Halloween. I used it one. A group started to be obnoxious and I took the darn thing and raised it up and brought it down on my desk and broke the paddle in half….the room got perfectly silent and I never had any trouble with any of them after that.
Can’t paddle here unless parent gives signed permission and the kid/parent asks for that punishment instead of another. I wouldn’t trust anyone to paddle a kid. Besides too many of the kids that need it have already been battered and beaten at home.
Great story! Nothing says don’t mess with me like splintering a paddle on the first day.
Too true that kids who act out have homelife issues.
Yeah, any number of studies have shown that corporal punishment just isn’t effective. These days, to really punish a kid, you just take away their cell phone or internet access!
Yep all the trouble makers have that internet!
I really don’t understand the practice of paddling. It’s so barbaric. Not to mention that teachers should be TEACHING. We have enough trouble getting our kids to a basic level of education without adding paddling to the problems.
Exactly!
Where I went to school there was no paddling allowed by teachers. We had detention or better yet they called our parents and let them smack the crap out of us! And back then my parents were very very strict! Would I strike a child today? NO! I still remember the pain and humiliation of being hit from my both my parents. Make no mistake I love my parents, they did the best they knew how at the time. But, parents have to be more creative to punish a child for doing wrong. And they should be punished should they not?? I don’t think they have to be hit, but there are other ways. Or am I just too old and old fashioned? I do see kids get away with way more then they should. There must be a middle ground somewhere.
Well, for sure each parent makes the decision how to handle behavior issues. I don’t like to see some namby pamby “Oh now Ethan don’t your remember our discussion that we don’t rip things to shreds that don’t belong to us. Use your inside voice and apologize to the nice lady.”
That said, whacking a child because they won’t stop saying mom I need to go to the bathroom, mom I’m hungry, mom can you please get off your cell phone long enough to help with…is plain wrong. You’re right, in most cases moms and dads do the best they know how. Sometimes the best we can do is to make it up as we go. I can’t choose for someone else. I’m certainly not the perfect mom and really wasn’t any better prepared for parenthood than my parents were. I knew for sure what I did not want to do and I guess that’s something.
Oh yeah, that’s something. And I firmly believe violence is never a good teaching tool. But like you I don’t approve of the “namby pamby” method either. That’s why I think there has got to be a better way. Just glad I don’t have to make those decisions. So I guess with that I should hush now 😉
I remember this in schools (and yeah, it happened to me). It was more humiliating than anything else and I don’t agree with this. I do not think this is the job for teachers but in some cases, teachers are afraid to do anything to discipline students for fear of retribution. And I’m not talking about physical paddling but ANYTHING. I don’t know what the answer is. It seems, as with most things, that the pendulum has to swing entirely to the other side before everyone reaches an agreement of common sense. Remember common sense? Good post, Honie.
Thanks Brigitte, I vaguely remember hearing something about common sense. Like most things, it’s become so uncommon we think of it in the abstract. Like, “it’s just good common sense to use a condom if you’re too stupid to take care of another human being.”
I don’t know where that came from… 🙂
What drives me crazy is when people say, ” I was hit as a kid and I turned out okay.” It’s an incredibly weak response and I would say 1) You’re not exactly an objective grader on the “I’m okay” scale 2) Even if you are truly okay, it was in spite of, not because of, being physically punished.
Those pictures gave me the creeps, by the way, but it’s an important subject to talk about…
The creeps – I can see why they would. 😦 Yes, when people say things like “I was hit as a kid and I turned out okay” they are lying to themselves as much as anyone else. Being hit, smacked, paddled, back-handed (I know them all) damages a person. Not necessarily beyond repair, but it plants the seed that we somehow deserve it. Once that thought takes root, it becomes a painfully tangled bramble from which some spend years trying to escape. Of all the places to teach kids how to appropriately handle conflict, our schools have the most teachable moments.
I was only paddled once in school, I was framed 🙂
Funny, that’s exactly what happened to me. 🙂
precise, passionate, and awesome. Good write up here, Honie.
Thanks!
As a matter of interest, corporal punishment in schools was banned in NZ years ago, and we have now passed an anti-smacking law for parents too.
That is interesting. Anti-smacking, hmmmm. Thanks for the comment.