Our nuns routinely threw erasers at kids across the room. I had a piano teacher (another nun) who whacked my knuckles with a conductor's baton everytime I hit a wrong note.
One reason nuns got away with that stuff is that if you went home and told your parents Sister hit you, you'd probaby get another smack because your parents figured you'd done something to deserve it.
I don't know how many parents still think that same way anymore. And looking at how something can really go wrong (what if Sister put your eye out with that eraser?), the possibility of litigation make old fashioned discipline a little expensive.
I'm all for discipline, and every now and then I shed a tear for the old ways, but brutalizing children in school just is not necessary.
One reason nuns got away with that stuff is that if you went home and told your parents Sister hit you, you'd probaby get another smack because your parents figured you'd done something to deserve it.
I don't know how many parents still think that same way anymore
Virtually none. Don't you know that Their Child is Perfect and can do No Wrong? (rolls eyes)