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When I was an elementary school pupil back in the 1950's they still used corporal punishment. There was a large wood paddle in the principal's office and offenders were brought in and administered several whacks to the rear end. I believe girls were excluded. Don't believe parents objected.
There are parts of the Bible Belt where that still happens, like swampeast Missouri. One of my students came back from a whupping and almost tore up the classroom, he was so mad. (It wasn’t me who sent him to the principal.)
In third grade, I got sent down to the kindergarten, "where you belong" for the rest of the afternoon. Had to take a nap.
As Mark Twain said about being tarred and feathered, "If it weren't for the honor of the thing, I wouldn't have enjoyed at all."
That last line is pretty funny and realistic. By the time I was in high school, there was a certain "honor" in being punished by the school. I didn't really feel it in elementary school, and I dreaded punishment then. But as I got older, the "badge of honor" aspect was something that I liked, and sometimes I did things that I knew would bring punishment, but I decided in advance that it was worth it because of a combination of the thrill of breaking a rule and the honor that came with the punishment.
My only punishment in high school was after school detention, but it definitely conferred bragging rights. Anytime I or any of my friends got detention, we made sure everybody knew about it and I tried to position myself to be visible in the room where we served it so people would see me there when they walked by. Sometimes I got positive comments the next day, even from some teachers who said things like "I saw you in detention yesterday; keep up the good work."
So while the actual punishment wasn't terribly fun, there was a fun side to getting into trouble as long as it wasn't too serious.
That last line is pretty funny and realistic. By the time I was in high school, there was a certain "honor" in being punished by the school. I didn't really feel it in elementary school, and I dreaded punishment then. But as I got older, the "badge of honor" aspect was something that I liked, and sometimes I did things that I knew would bring punishment, but I decided in advance that it was worth it because of a combination of the thrill of breaking a rule and the honor that came with the punishment.
My only punishment in high school was after school detention, but it definitely conferred bragging rights. Anytime I or any of my friends got detention, we made sure everybody knew about it and I tried to position myself to be visible in the room where we served it so people would see me there when they walked by. Sometimes I got positive comments the next day, even from some teachers who said things like "I saw you in detention yesterday; keep up the good work."
So while the actual punishment wasn't terribly fun, there was a fun side to getting into trouble as long as it wasn't too serious.
I wonder if some of the "honor" came from the fact many of the "rules" were just dumber than dirt. I think that even as kids we all understand there is a need for some rules and some enforcement just to function. But I also believe schools go overboard with some of the inane rules.
Just as an example one of those dumb rules my school had for a while was you had to buy milk for lunch from the school cafeteria, regardless of whether you were eating in the cafeteria or not. Water was not an acceptable substitute. You had to buy their milk. Funny thing was, as soon as the cafeteria closed, you could buy Pepsi from the vending machine. It was just so obvious it had nothing to do with nutrition or health, but with selling product to a captive audience.
So in a sense getting punished for violating these inane rules was honorable for standing up to a dictatorship.
I wonder if some of the "honor" came from the fact many of the "rules" were just dumber than dirt. I think that even as kids we all understand there is a need for some rules and some enforcement just to function. But I also believe schools go overboard with some of the inane rules.
Just as an example one of those dumb rules my school had for a while was you had to buy milk for lunch from the school cafeteria, regardless of whether you were eating in the cafeteria or not. Water was not an acceptable substitute. You had to buy their milk. Funny thing was, as soon as the cafeteria closed, you could buy Pepsi from the vending machine. It was just so obvious it had nothing to do with nutrition or health, but with selling product to a captive audience.
So in a sense getting punished for violating these inane rules was honorable for standing up to a dictatorship.
I think that's part of it, and part of it is just the youthful desire to rebel against authority. The stupidest rules we had that I can think of concerned the dress code we had. I hated following the dress code and tried to get away with violating it sometimes, mainly by wearing sneakers (which weren't allowed), and I got into trouble for it a few times.
Then there were a couple of teachers along the way who were overzealous in their enforcement of classroom decorum and looked for reasons to give some of us detention, and we responded by saying, in effect, "If he's going to give me detention, I am going to earn it" so it had the opposite of the intended effect, and incited misbehavior. I discovered it was fun to be one of the "bad" kids who had to serve detention over and over, though it only lasted a few weeks because I think the administration spoke to those teachers and told them they needed to knock it off.
There was also a rule, which I didn't disagree with, that if you were late for homeroom without a valid excuse, you had to stay for after school detention. The dean monitored the main entrance to catch kids coming in after the bell, and teachers were supposed to send kids who arrived late to the office. I was late a number of times in grades 10 and 11, but I snuck in the side doors and I had nice homeroom teachers who liked me and didn't send me to the dean's office when I was late, so I effectively got away with it for a while. But on the first day of school in 12th grade, I was late for homeroom and the teacher wouldn't let me in until I went to the dean's office, so I finally got busted for it. It was a pretty lame offense to have to spend over an hour after school for being a minute or so late in the morning, but I was lucky I got away with it as long as I did.
Another time I got in trouble because I got kicked out of class because I couldn't stop laughing when the teacher was yelling at the whole class. That got me stuck in detention after school for 2 consecutive days. All heinous offenses....
In third grade, I got sent down to the kindergarten, "where you belong" for the rest of the afternoon. Had to take a nap.
As Mark Twain said about being tarred and feathered, "If it weren't for the honor of the thing, I wouldn't have enjoyed at all."
In 2nd grade, the principal tried to move me back down to kindergarten because I tried to defend myself against a bully. I sat in his office crying for hours, and refused to leave his office until he either gave in, or had me physically removed from his office. He eventually gave in and let me stay in 2nd grade.
Shortly before I finished 5th grade, the principal apologized to my parents about the incident, and admitted that he was wrong about me, and agreed to remove that incident from my permanent record. I always respected that principal for that, and felt that it showed a lot of courage for him to admit to a parent that he was wrong.
In 2nd grade, the principal tried to move me back down to kindergarten because I tried to defend myself against a bully. I sat in his office crying for hours, and refused to leave his office until he either gave in, or had me physically removed from his office. He eventually gave in and let me stay in 2nd grade.
Shortly before I finished 5th grade, the principal apologized to my parents about the incident, and admitted that he was wrong about me, and agreed to remove that incident from my permanent record. I always respected that principal for that, and felt that it showed a lot of courage for him to admit to a parent that he was wrong.
During what period in school did you receive the most punishment?
In the 50s/60s in my school, students were whacked on the hand with a wooden ruler (which often caused bleeding), or spanked in front of the class with the teacher's hand or a wooden paddle.
The first few years of elementary school (Kindergarten through 2nd grade) and all of middle school (6th - 8th grade).
I can't even imagine what real punishments would be used in the K-2 period. What did they do to punish you in those grades? That's a bit surprising. Middle school is not surprising in the least.
For me, the period when I got the most punishment in school was the last 2 years of high school. I decided that I was tired of following the rules and I was going to start defying them and then toughing out the punishment.
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