When I was a kid, if you got a paddling in school, you got another when you got home!................
Yep....And the paddles at school had several holes drilled through them to cut down on wind resistance.
Fact!
Absolutely. And gosh society was so out of control back then.
Oh. Wait...
One of the major problems these days is that kids never run
into a “NO” before adulthood.
Thank goodness this mom will have no problem convincing this
child that the adult was wrong and nothing she did was.
Society will have to resolve this kid’s issues after she
turns into an adult.
Some officer will shout stop and will have to shoot her as
as she barrels ahead.
And, as promised, it was always worse when you got home.
My bus driver when I was in elementary school (Mrs. Willy - still remember her name) had a wooden yardstick and she wasn’t afraid to use it. She broke it on more that a couple occasions smacking someone back into their seat.
Oh hell yeah!
Yep. And I got a lot of paddlings.. I deserved them all.
Yep, and coach liked the paddle with the holes in it.
LOL, I got paddled twice in school, both when I was in 7th grade in a school on a Navy base overseas.
I deserved it both times.
I got paddled once by Mr. Nutter who was teaching Spanish, and I blurted out in the middle of class “Andale Andale, Arriba, Arriba!” He was not amused, but the paddling was not bad. I didn’t like Mr. Nutter or his class.
The other time I got paddled was by Mr. Woods, who I liked immensely and who was a great teacher. Mr. Woods had served in the Marines, was about 5’6”, extremely fit, with darkly tanned skin, and at least six lines on his forehead which was topped by short curly hair, and forearms that looked like they had been transplanted from Popeye. He was also the baseball coach for George Dewey Junior-Senior High. Before class began on the first day of school, he told us, in clear, calm terms, his rules for class. No talking was prominent. He said anyone talking in class would be paddled, and he showed us what we would be paddled with. It looked exactly like a cricket bat.
With holes in it.
Well, I talked on the first day of class, and he calmly told me to stay after class. That day, I ended up with five of my seventh grade comrades waiting after class for Mr. Woods. Well, he walked back into the classroom where we were waiting, and he was carrying that paddle. We watched as he had the first kid bend over and grab his ankles, and after two swings, the gentle kind you might see a baseball player at bat do while the pitcher was figuring out what to throw, he suddenly swung hard, and with a loud “SMACK!” hit the kid in the buttocks.
The kid straightened up, wide eyed, grimacing and going “Aghh! AGHH!” and then stumbled out of the classroom, his white-knuckled fingers digging deeply into his cheeks from each side as we watched in startled fear! That swat didn’t seem ANYTHING like what Mr. Nutter delivered, which was laughable. I think the reaction of the first kid made it even worse.
I was next, and as I grabbed my ankles, I peered back between my spread legs at Mr. Woods and his paddle. He gave two premonitory gentle swings, and I heard him saying “You never know when it is going to hit...” and then suddenly, with a loud “SMACK!” he swatted me in the rear end.
My mom had hit me pretty hard with a belt before and had left red marks, but it was NOTHING compared to this. My bottom burned as if I had sat on red hot coals, or alternatively, as if I had sat on a hive of bees! I wasn’t a wimp, but he REALLY whacked me pretty hard, and I straightened up and went out the door exactly the same way the kid before me had!
Well.
Word certainly got around, and NOBODY did ANYTHING untoward in his class for the rest of that year. I remember being in a circle of kids who wanted to know what it was like, and I didn’t have to exaggerate to tell them, just as I have here. I even did a demonstration in that circle of wide-eyed kids of grabbing my ankles, complete with a loud verbal mimicking of the “SMACK!”, replete with me making the “ARGHHH” noises and grabbing my buttocks fiercely and I dug in my fingers in pain!
I didn’t know at the time, but I was doing ALL of Mr. Woods’ work there. I have no doubt that is exactly what he expected us to do...”educate” the other kids!
There were two lessons I learned from that:
First, that telling people how they will be punished for crimes, in clear and simple terms, and following through with that punishment immediately and to the letter, is not being cruel. It is being consistent and fair. To this day, I NEVER faulted Mr. Woods for paddling me.
Secondly, setting an example has a great deal of value. Following through with a punishment, not softening it, not delaying it, and making it painful, ensured that the word got out, and nobody wanted to break laws laid down by Mr. Woods.