Many schools in the rural deep south of the USA still use paddling for discipline in elementary and high schools.Other places like California have not done in many deacades.Were Utah schools and teachers supporters of beating with a paddle in past decades?Mormons are not quite so emphasizing of a bible verse saying spare the rod and spoil the child.

Are private Catholic and christian schools in Utah still legally allowed to use corporal punishment?

Yes. Far in the past.

Not only paddling but my Aunt who went through school in the early 1900s told us about standing in the dunce corner while holding up weighted pails.

That's horrible. Shaming and torture combined.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2019 12:30PM by Soft Machine.

My brother and I went to a very nasty school in England in the 60s, which beat the boys from age 9 upwards for sometimes incomprehensible things. . My brother, who is two and a half years older than me, was there from age 7 to 11. He was very unhappy there because it was a very un-nurturing place to be and his academic results suffered. Their response was to beat him (6 times with a leather slipper on the arse) 11 times in one week - and the rule was that he had to say "thank you" each time. He then ran away from the school to avoid further beatings and it all came out.

My mother took him BACK to the school when she found him hiding at home. The headmaster's response was to insist on beating him. When my mother (a science teacher since the 50s) suggested this was not perhaps the best course of action, he told her she couldn't understand becasue she was woman!

That was not the sort of thing to say to my mother ;-)
We were out of there within a month, something which was a source of great relief for me and my brother.

But my brother never really got over it and is still damaged to this day (he's 62).

The school was St. Andrews, Woking, in Surrey, and the man responsible was Mr. W. Maynard. I say this because it is very proud of itself, despite being a near-fascist school in the 50s and 60s and a very openly right-wing and ideological in the 80s, when I went to an open day there. A lot of connections with "white Rhodesia". Not nice.

Tom in...Paris? Perris? Who knows? ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2019 01:02PM by Soft Machine.

Thank you, Tom, for naming the school and the man. These people should be remembered; their achievements memorialized.


ETA: And in Surrey of all places. One would have thought the wealthy would have been less tolerant of such stuff, though I guess the elite school traditions lasted a long time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2019 01:06PM by Lot's Wife.

I can relate. See my post below.

Beginning in JR High.

Girls were spared.

You had to be a true blue trouble maker to earn yourself a paddling.

Other than my junior high school gym teachers ?

I myself would be surprised if there were any schools pre- 1970's or later that forbid (or punished) teachers who used a paddle; one I remember, from NM Butler jr. hi north of Seattle (now 'Shoreline'): Metal Shop, about 1958 or so: one of the students heated up a metal screwdriver & handed it to another student....

I don't remember how serious the burns were, but I sure remember all the class watching student #1 getting MANY HARD SWATS with a HUGE PADDLE... both the wood shop & metal shop students were called to watch this, I'll never forget it. I even remember the name of Student #1, but of course won't tell-repeat it here.

My 5th grade teacher had a paddle in the 50s. Parents had to give permission.I remember a teacher swatting a girl once. Other.than those cases,not in my experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 02:28AM by bona dea.

I lied my ass off and successfully avoided a paddling by my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Taylor. I forget who was accusing me of being the father...

But my senior year in high school I got a heck of a swat from Mr. Bitz, a vice principal, for the sin of having cut the belt loops off my 501 Levi's and not having my shirt tucked in.

Life was tough back then,!

I was never hit as a kid. I'm against corporal punishment in

gradeschool. I once warned one of my children's teachers that

whatever they did to my child, I would do to them. He was never

hit.

WHAT THE HELL!!!

So I get to paddle you back from now on?

ETA: Please!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 03:17PM by elderolddog.

Procure thyselves a chamber, for God's sake!

This all seems soft by the standards of the all boys school I went to in the UK in the 50s. There it was a cane and six, with wind up, were applied across the palms or the rear, leaving massive raised whelts. Some teachers appeared to relish the punishment so much they actually shattered the cane in the process. Appalling in its violence.

Ah, yes, the idyllic life of the Senior Prefect!

I've read, I believe, the entire oeuvre of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse and not having experienced it, he may have given the secondary British Public School system short shrift, in that he portrayed it as something to be endured, not celebrated.

Perhaps more the Squires school for boys portrayed by Dickens. I never suffered it and vowed they would never lay that on me.

British "Public" schools in the 40s and 50s were genuinely horrifying places by the standards of today. My father and uncle both went to the same second-tier "public" school as I and my brother did in the 70s, when they had considerably cleaned things up - probably in response to the wonderful film "If" (see it if you want to understand what these strange all-male micro-societies were like at that time - it's got Malcolm MacDowell in one of his first roles).

Basically, they were ultra-violent, highly homosexualized, hierarchical societies cut off from the outside world. Prefects (other teenagers) were allowed to beat other boys, particularly juniors, for any reason that took their fancy. After nightly prayers, the older boys would trawl thje younger dormitories for bedmates... There were also, inevitably, several paedophiles on the staff. My father was lucky to be dayboy until an age when he could defend himself.

By the time I and my brother went (1973), there was no corporal punishment or rampant homosexuality. We even had 32 girls in a school of 650 boys (I always assumed that they were there to serve as w*nk-fodder to keep our hormones down, as they were closely guarded and no hanky panky was allowed ;-). Poor girls, many of them were terribly damaged by it. Most of us hadn't seen any girls except our sisters and, possibly their friends, since the age of 7... The worst things I had to put up with were the school's disgustingly snobby, class-conscious attitudes, the overpowering stench of hypocrisy and the isolation away from home at 13 way out in the countryside.

Everything they say about those schools is true. My country of origin, the UK, has long been ruled and continues to be ruled by the products of this iniquitous system, like "Boris" (whose real first name is Alexander and who is called Al by his family and friends). I'm pretty sure that public schools should bear much of the blame for the nationwide psychotic meltdown which the UK appears to have suffered over the last few years. Because these schools often produce severely-damaged, brutal people who really don't care - and who also automatically benefit from a social status higher than they would be able to attain starting from a "lower" social class.

It's also why I'm...

Tom in Paris

I was paddled in 1973. Actually it was a very light tap since I was screaming like I was going to the electric chair. It was probably traumatic for the other kids.

The principal of the public elementary school I attended in the late 70s and early 80s had a paddle and he used it. This was in the Eastern U.S. If you were sent to the principal's office more than twice, on the third time you could expect to be paddled. I certainly don't advocate punishing children by spanking or paddling; I've never spanked my own kids. However, my classmates and I were a pretty well behaved group compared to some of the kids I've seen in the last few years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 02:42PM by want2bx.

I was in 6th grade back in 1960 and our teacher was brand new to being a teacher. He was there because his brother was a principal at another school (or something on that order).

There was a group of us, 5-6, who were being noisy or rude or something and I don't remember the details. Mr. C took all of us (boys) to another room and he spanked us over his knees.

Didn't hurt much and we went back to class. I think my parents were told about it and had to go to a meeting with the principal of our school and the teacher ended up apologizing to the same group.

I went on the 7th grade the next year of course and my younger brother told me he wasn't back as a teacher so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.

Did schools in Mormon dominated area like Rexburg and Provo use corporal punishment,and not whether schools outside Mormon majority did the practise.

In my Junior High School in Davis county in the early 70s several teachers paddled boy students for "discipline" issues.

I got paddled twice for having my shirt tail out. This was a heavy thick paddle with holes drilled through it to allow maximun velocity and the teacher swung it hard and fast, and it did hurt and leave bruises.

My shop teacher tried to paddle a friend of mine who was a very early developer (he shaved in 7th grade). He picked up the shop teacher and threw him in the shop sink.

A fourth grade teacher in my Elementary school would "rap" a students knuckles with a yard stick for bad behavior or poor penmanship.

One principal at my elementary school routinely had students sent to his office for the "board of education."

I went to school in Virginia and was paddled in front of my fourth grade class. The male teacher had a wooden paddle shaped like a whale and referred to paddlings as "whalings". The year was 1981 or 82, and he did not ask permission of my parents. It still upsets me to think about it today, even though I don't remember the paddle session as particularly painful. It was very humiliating, though, and uncalled for in light of my "offense".

Worst of all, I came home very upset and my father, upon hearing that I was paddled, was going to spank me again. Fortunately, my mom intervened and even said that she didn't think it was right that the teacher used a paddle on me without permission. It was incidents like that one that made me eventually dislike my father, although I always loved him. He was a big proponent of always believing the adult and not protecting his child. He's been dead for five years now, and I still think he's an asshole for that.

If I had ever had children and any adult ever hit them, I would raise holy hell. I think corporal punishment is mostly wrong, especially in schools.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2019 05:42AM by knotheadusc.

I went to a school in Ogden back in the 1980s and my teacher would spank us. I got spanked for staying out at recess too long, and others would get spanked for playing in the bathroom water too long and getting wet. It was traumatizing at the time. She also had us watch the Challenger explosion, which was even more violent than getting spanked!

I can still remember getting 'paddled' in 6th grade ---- can't remember what for but am sure it was valid.

It's never okay to hit a child. There is always a better way to address a behavior.

Emphatically, true.

I grew up in Southern California, not Utah, but there was a paddle hanging on the wall in the principal's office, and I remember hearing about it being used on rare occasions.

The principal, a friend and neighbor of ours (a very kind, mild-mannered Southern gentleman named Sam Miles) was a thoroughly decent guy.

I can remember being sent to his office on the first day of kindergarten, because I was raising Cain about not being taught to read on the first day of school. Even though I could already read my own comic books, my father had told me that school had a library and we could borrow books. My kindergarten teacher was a mean old witch, roundly hated by everyone, and she told me that kindergartners were not allowed to use the library. Well then, I decided that I had zero practical reason to stay there and endure her idiotic notions about education, which included daubing at designs with paint on an easel (with only one color allotted to each kid - I made a point of borrowing other colors from other kids because a single color just wasn't doing it for me.)

Dear old Sam explained patiently to me that even though my teacher had failed to deliver on the expectation of reading, we were all still stuck with the law that required all kids from 5 on, to be in school, even if NOT taught to read. As I saw it, education was a monumental waste of time until I reached university, which I adored.

Catnip, a rebel from the start.

9th grade shop class. Had a wooden paddle with holes drilled in it so it would hit your backside with with higher velocity.

Paddles, paddles, paddles, memories, memories, memories!
I remember paddles in grade school. Everyone knew when someone was going to be paddled, because another teacher would come in the room and whisper something to our teacher, then she’d tell us what to work on while she was gone.
We knew she was going to “ witness” a paddle.
We’d soon hear a paddle, usually 1-3 times.
Some boys would tell like they’re in pain to make the whole class laugh.
It was usually only boys who got paddled.
Most of them would return to the room laughing and rubbing their butt, making the class laugh.
I remember one time that the teacher left to pick something up in the office and told us to be quiet and read our lesson.
As soon as she left, everyone started talking.
A few of us heard a static coming from the intercom, so we knew it was on, trying to point to it, getting everyone to shut up.
Of course, she’d ask us if we were quiet and everyone said “ yes”
She knew we were lying because that static noise was her listening to our room when she was gone
The whole class had to go out in the hall to get a paddle, girls too.
Of course, it was just a light swat , which just made everyone laugh.
The kids in the other classes were probably having fun listening to all the paddles.
The boys , of course, were yelling in “ pain” , to make the other students in the other classrooms laugh.

Southern California, early 60s: our first grade teacher made the same kid stand in front of the class on different occasions and admit he'd been spanked (I assume by the female principal).

Hawaii, mid 60s: our fifth grade teacher told us that we were getting too big to spank (she was a little Japanese American lady) so she would just call our fathers if there were problems.

Back in California, early 70s: our junior high Geography class was team taught and the younger teacher would call kids up to the front of the room at wack us with a big paddle (one or two swats) if we misbehaved.

I can't speak for Utah, but corporal punishment was a regular part of public education and family discipline as I was growing up.

I grew up in New England in the 60s. I never even heard of a student being paddled in the public schools.

I do not advocate corporal punishment, but the current system which tries to discourage suspensions isn't working either. This past week a young, very sincere math teacher at one of my schools was chased out of her job by students who were being complete asshats to her without any significant consequence. They would loudly disrupt instruction, start fights, and throw tantrums in which her room was repeatedly destroyed. Why *would* she stay? Now the students in her room who really do want to learn may be denied a quality education if a qualified replacement for her can not be found. And thus the cycle of poverty continues.