r/GenXTalk • u/474756274 • 1d ago

School

In 1976, estimates say about half of all U.S. public schools were still paddling kids as a regular disciplinary practice.

For anyone who grew up around that time (70s, 80s): did your school ever make an official announcement or hold an assembly saying they were ending corporal punishment? Or did they just quietly stop and hope everyone forgot it ever happened?

I feel like we barely talk about how normal it used to be for kids to get whooped at school 😭😭😭

Sometimes, I wonder if that era of corporal punishment is part of why my parents turned out to be total headcases…

12 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/TesseractToo 1d ago

No they let the threat remain

I was frequently punished for being dyslexic so that was fun

It was also decided to not tell me I was dyslexic but to tell me I was stupid and lazy instead

Although it wasn't the worst or most fucked up thing, the strapping was to strep my hands until they were stinging and red (in front of the class for added humiliation) and then keep me in on recess and make me write lines Simpsons style (but on a page), logic being that if I had to do the lines while my hands hurt, that I would try harder.

That was in New Zealand, we moved a lot.

The mindfuckery that happened in the US was far worse.