While I’m definitely in the minority (20% of Americans) in that I don’t believe in spanking my own child as an efficient form of discipline, I think it has become a collectively weird thought for us as American parents to consider that not that long ago, students were still being spanked (with paddles!) in the public school system.
I managed to make it all the way through 13 years of public school (that includes Kindergarten, obviously) with only getting one paddling.
I had just turned 14; it was at the end of my 8th grade year, 20 years ago: May 1995.
It was a Friday at the end of gym class, during a “free play” day. A bunch of my friends were running towards the wall, then jumping as high as they could, to see how high they could press our feet on the wall.
The wall was built of concrete cinder blocks, so we could easily measure how high we jumped by the grout in between them, using the grout lines to measure the height of where our feet hit the wall.
Turns out, I jumped the highest that day. However, no one bothered to tell me that the gym coach had just warned the other guys that the next person he saw jumping on the wall would be paddled…
So the male gym coach took me to the locker room and paddled me 3 times with a wooden paddle, while the girls’ coach witnessed it.
I could sense she felt awkward being there; knowing I was “the good kid” who was playing the scapegoat that day.
When I emerged from the locker room, having just been hit by a wooden plank on my “bum”, all my friends were lined up waiting to give me a high five and cheer me on.
I suppose it was a perfect way to score some “cool points” just in time to prepare for high school.
The paddling was obviously not effective; especially since I wasn’t aware I was breaking the recently established rule until it was too late.
All it really did was make my friends think I was cool. It was like part of an initiation process, apparently.
Isn’t it bizarre to imagine that paddling (spanking) in the public schools was still going on in our lifetime?
These days, something like that could easily be perceived as harassment or abuse. Right?
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I was paddled senior year for throwing water balloons at a pep session; three of us were in on it. It was the only paddling I got all through school. The asst principal said, “Have you boys ever had your fannies paddled?” We knew we were sunk. But, looking back, it seems weird that adult males paddled 18-year-old boys after making them bend over to present their butts!!!
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In high school phy ed we were doing different ‘stations’ like rope climbing pullups etc–I skipped a couple and the coach knew it so after school I had to literally do all the stations again—-then back in the locker room he literally spanked my naked butt over his knee–I was a big guy–bigger then he was—–It hurt alot and was humiliating as I was too big and developed to be over a guy’s lap naked I got hard which embarrassed me totally —
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I, too, got a bare butt paddling in gym class. Told to drop gym shorts, pull down underwear leaving my 9th grade bare butt to be paddled. Coach put me over his knee like a toddler, took paddle in hand and swatted by bare butt to red and was the swats HURTING!! When done with my score butt I was let back up, rubbing red cheeks trying to relieve the hurt and told to shower. All my buddies swatted at my SORE RED butt!
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I’ve come to the conclusion corporal punishment is universally abused and abusive, both by parents and teachers. A slap on the hand may be necessary for a toddler about to stick their finger in a candle flame or electric socket, but all a paddling does for a 13-year-old is make him hateful and fearful of the abuser(s). At the very least, this is lazy mentoring and, at worst, the perpetrators are sexual sadists.
I recall a TV news story about 4 high school boys who appeared in a talent show in Louisiana, lip syncing to a pop band. They had the poor judgement to set of some fireworks to spice up the show, but these were all good students and a verbal reprimand should have been sufficient. But an attractive young female teacher, maybe 25, was in charge of the talent show and decided the boys deserved 4 swats from a paddle. At least two of the young men were quite handsome, I didn’t see the other two, but I’ll assume most high school boys are on the “cute” at that age. So, common sense tells me this excessive punishment was motivated by some sexual fantasy the teacher had about boys who were only a few years younger than her.
When I was in junior high, a bunch of boys went in to shower a couple minutes early and were called out by our sadistic coach to be paddled. The boys were all lined up and given 3 hard swats in just their thin gym shorts. This was uncalled for and in any other social context would have been grounds for an assault and battery charge. This was a routine occurrence in PE and we also had to endure passive corporal punishments, like “bear crawls” across the field. (For the record: I only witnessed the paddlings, I was not a victim).
Parents who spank wonder why their children won’t come to them for help. If, for example, a child is getting poor grades in school, the belt just another example that “bullying behavior” is ok. Perhaps the child needs a tutor or needs to be held back a grade? Maybe there are other issues like bullied by another student or teacher? There are lots of “crap” courses kids have to take in school, so parent’s shouldn’t agonize over a “C” in US History. Who cares when the Louis and Clark Expedition occurred?
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