First experience with maple

[gary]

It was about 40 years ago when some penguin (nun) hit my knuckles with a maple ruler for talking in class. It sure felt like hard maple. How times have changed.....

[cabinetman]

I'll tell ya how times have changed. It was elementary school. I bet it was maple, and it was a big 'ole paddle that had holes drilled through the face, that the principal used to beat my butt.

[leehljp]

I'll tell ya how times have changed. It was elementary school. I bet it was maple, and it was a big 'ole paddle that had holes drilled through the face, that the principal used to beat my butt.

You probably deserved it! And So did I for what I did!

[cabinetman]

You probably deserved it! And So did I for what I did!

Confession time...what did you do? Me, I did deserve it. I remember that paddle distinctly. It was at least 1/2" thick, bigger 'round than a ping pong paddle and had a handle about a foot long. I'm sure it was Maple now that all those fond memories are coming back.

Today, that dude would no doubt be in jail.
.

[gsmittle]

This thread brings back memories....

Worst paddling I ever got in Jr. High was from Miss Gross. She was about four-foot-nothin' and maybe weighed 90 lbs, but she could sure swing that maple paddle! She used some sort of wrist-uppercut motion that really whipped that paddle into the nether regions. Worse than the PE teacher!

One of my collegues used to walk into the shop teacher's room on the first day of school, throw a broken paddle on the desk, and say, "Can you make me another one? This one broke ALREADY!"

He didn't have a lot of behavior issues after that...

Sometimes I wish corporal punishment was still allowed.

g.

[Uncle Cracker]

Sometimes I wish corporal punishment was still allowed.

Sometimes? How 'bout all the time... There would be a waiting line around the building with some of the kids they got nowadays...

[DonHo]

This discussion makes me consider the "fine art" of cutting a switch for your own whipping.
It was my mother (dad always used a belt) who would send me out to cut the switch when she was going to whip me. It was an art to choose a switch small enough not to hurt too much but still be big enough for her to accept. If it was too small she'd go cut her own switch and it sure seemed like she used it harder and longer too

I gotta say though that I never got a whipping I didn't deserve and I also deserved several I never got

There's a reason the Bible says "spare the rod and spoil the child", more people should heed the advice.
DonHo

[Richard in Smithville]

I had a friend who taught phys ed in a "rough" high school a few years back. She had permission from the board to bring in her husband to teach self defence to the class. Did I mention he was a karate black belt? He would find out the trouble makers before hand and get them to hold the impact pads while he demonstrated kicks and punches.

[williwatt]

This discussion makes me consider the "fine art" of cutting a switch for your own whipping.
It was my mother (dad always used a belt) who would send me out to cut the switch when she was going to whip me. It was an art to choose a switch small enough not to hurt too much but still be big enough for her to accept. If it was too small she'd go cut her own switch and it sure seemed like she used it harder and longer too DonHo

I remember when my mother cut the switch it must have been hickory wood because she would say I needed a dose of "hickory tea."

[germdoc]

Ol' Cap'n Tate (7th grade English) had a maple meter stick that he used on recalcitrant kids. If they fell asleep in class he'd rap them on the head with it.

Coach Day (7th grade history) weighed well over 300 pounds and had a tiny little paddle (? basswood) he swung like a fly swatter. It didn't feel like that on your behind, it stung like the dickens. If you flunked one of his pop quizzes, which he un-PC called "Japs" because "they sneak up on you like Pearl Harbor", you could receive 5 licks to bring your grade up to a 70. Poor ole Tom Moore got a lot of paddlin's that year...

I got a number of paddlings over the years--many I did deserve but some I didn't--I resent each and every one.

I guess I turned out OK, but believe it or not times change, and I wouldn't want my kids' teachers to take up paddling at this point in time. I really don't think it would work and it would expose them to all sorts of issues. Just free associate the words "teacher", "wooden paddle" and "buttocks" and you'll get what I mean. My second observation is there's a fine line between discipline and abuse and some people can't be trusted to walk that line. I know some of the teachers I had in the past couldn't.

[cabinetman]

Ol' Cap'n Tate had a meter stick that he used on recalcitrant kids. If they fell asleep in class he'd rap them on the head with it.
My observation is there's a fine line between discipline and abuse and some people can't be trusted to walk that line.

I can tell you about "passiveness" with the element of fear. I had a teacher in junior high school that had a unique technique. He had made up one of those hand grip exercisers that had a little spring attached to two handles...the kind you hold in one hand and squeeze the handles together. But, the one he had was made up of a small car spring.

The first day of class when someone needed discipline, he would walk over to that persons desk and he would hand it to the person and ask them to click the handles. Well, they would struggle to do it once. Then he would say they could use two hands. After making faces, nobody could do it. Then he would put it in one hand click the handles about five times real fast, turn around and walk away. Funny...after that nobody ever gave him grief.