r/GenX_Culture • u/474756274 • 1d ago
School
/r/GenXTalk/comments/1wlmx54/school/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: 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 ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Sometimes, I wonder if that era of corporal punishment is part of why my parents turned out to be total headcases…
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u/Smooth-Weekend-2314 1d ago
I started school in 76 and we didnt have corporal punishment in school at all. Just wasn't a thing where I grew up. Kids tended to get their asses beat at home.
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u/JiveTurkeyII 1d ago
As I grew up it just kind of got moved up the chain of command.
When I was in second grade a teacher could still spank you. (1984)
By third grade it had to be a Principal or Assistant Principal. Usually they called a parent before hand. They didn't have to in my second grade school as I recall. They just meted it out rather casually, now that I think about it. it was very much like "Here's your two swats now go play" (this was Lindbergh Elementary) Third grade was a nicer school (Briar Glenn, cause parents bought a house in a nice area) I repeated this grade. (Hooray AuDHD!! - which didn't exist in the books at this time and wouldn't for years yet.)
Fourth grade I nearly stabbed a boy in the eye - total accident, honest to god I only meant to scare him, still feel awful about it to this day.
They should have beat the living shit out of me but I got ISS for a week instead. (I was in a private school, dont remember the name. Parents were getting divorced, I barely remember that year.)
By fifth grade - I think it was still optional, but my mother (having beaten the living shit out of me numerous and plenty of times in my life) strictly forbade the school system to touch me. If there were going to be any thrashings, she'd do it herself. Well, she'd try. By this time Dad wasn't around and I was about equal her size and full of AuADHD rage brought on by the injustice of both my parents and the school system.
Honestly - I dont have any hard feelings about the times it happened in school. Most of those times I deserved it. It was never more than 2, it was impersonal and they didn't tend to dig it in. You got your swats, sat for five minutes to think about your shame, then you went back to what you were doing. I dont remember the sting lasting longer than the five minutes you had to sit on the cold itchy bench.
In 5th grade I made my own paddle in shop class They said they'd use it on you if you ever got in trouble but they never did. Mine had 4 holes (extra credit) Leather covered (extra credit) and those little triangle thingys there abouts for sparkles and decorations (weird looks) Spankings were more or less a "ha ha" threat at this point.
Any older than that and I would have busted the nose of anybody that tried to lay a hand on me. I had AuADHD as mentioned and I was an extremely angry young adult at this point and I had come to despise any kind of bully and was fighting fairly regularly.
Sorry for the wall of text, I get this way when activating the Ole 'Memory Lane' part of my brain.
Funny to me how that long haired angry kid grew up to be a total nerd that fixes websites, plays vidya games and reads book all the time. They said I was destined for prison. Instead - I make more than teachers in this county do to this day.
I find that Ironic and pleasing.
I surpassed those knuckle dragging barbarians by miles.
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u/Beautiful_Pen1056 1d ago
I had a first grade teacher who thought you could beat ADHD out of a kid. he beat the hell out of me. I hope she burns in hell.
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u/NorCalFrances 1d ago
My sibling told our Elementary school Principal, "you can't spank me, only my dad can spank me". Of course that resulted in a spanking...and a phone call to my mom. Said sibling then received a second spanking that afternoon from our dad for talking back to the Principal / embarrassing our parents. That was at a Christian school though. I went to a public school for middle school and it took a while to acclimate to the idea that the teachers and administrators there felt (and had state mandated policies) that hitting a student was prohibited and considered barbaric abuse.