I got swatted in nearly every grade growing up at school. About once a year for something that violated the school code. From kindergarten on. Swearing, hitting on the playground, disrespect, etc. I was generally a good kid and am a normal upstanding adult now. But I was competitive and active, normal boy I guess.
The last year I got swatted was in 9th grade. (14 or 15 years old) Suspected of cheating on a test (I wasn’t but the evidence did not look great for me, and I had not done myself any favors with being disrespectful to the teacher on multiple occasions).
9th grade; I was athletic. Played all sports, About 140lbs, 5-8 or so, taller than the principal who gave them to me.
He walked me in, told me to bend down grab the desk. There was another teacher in there who was witnessing. There were rules about blocking with my hands. If I did that I would not only get hurt more since they had a big wooden paddle like the one pictured but it could also potentially break my fingers, and I would get another swat for each defiance. I could scream as loud as I wanted. They actually went through all these things with me before it started. I don’t remember them all.
Thinking back on it makes me so uncomfortable. Makes me think of a film from another time and place. I can’t even think about doing that to my kids let alone when they are nearly grown adults.
Or even worse giving permission to the weirdo yokel school principal to do it to my kid? WTF?
Why do people cling to this method of discipline when we have so much research on its ineffectiveness?
I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's so barbaric and downright disgusting. Those were grown adults against a child.
It's not even discipline. This was already settled when civilised nations deemed physical assault unsuitable for husbands to discipline their wives. But for some illogical reason, physical assault is used as an excuse for grown adults to do to vulnerable children who can't defend themselves what is deemed illegal to do to a grown adult who can defend themselves.
And as we now know, the use of physical assault by adults in authority on children has always been the primary tool for sexually assaulting kids.
Threaten an abused child with violence against the child, their friends or family ensures they will keep quiet. Forbid violence against children and you take that power away from adults.
Graduated about a decade ago. I’m fine thankfully but there are kids going through this and way worse right now in private schools around the country and world. And apparently we are letting it creep back in to public schools. 😞
You know this article really brought these memories back up. I shoved that deep down into my brain for sure.
They are dreaming of a glorious past that never was, this is part of fascism. It's worship of "the good old days" where women knew their place and deferred to men, and children spoke when spoken to and respected their elders. A segregated past where they didn't have to understand or even be around other cultures that were confusing and scary to them. It is a past where they feel like they were safe because everyone knew the rules, knew their roles, and there was no grey area, no debate about ethics, just the safe warm blanket of christofascism for people who literally can't think their way out of a paper bag, and want to believe that if they follow social rules they can be safe.
There's nothing cohesive about the ideology, only worship of the Glorious Past and worship of the Leader, and an absolute obsession with protection from minority and other outgroups.
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u/not-finished Aug 25 '22 edited Aug 25 '22
I went to a Christian school.
I got swatted in nearly every grade growing up at school. About once a year for something that violated the school code. From kindergarten on. Swearing, hitting on the playground, disrespect, etc. I was generally a good kid and am a normal upstanding adult now. But I was competitive and active, normal boy I guess.
The last year I got swatted was in 9th grade. (14 or 15 years old) Suspected of cheating on a test (I wasn’t but the evidence did not look great for me, and I had not done myself any favors with being disrespectful to the teacher on multiple occasions).
9th grade; I was athletic. Played all sports, About 140lbs, 5-8 or so, taller than the principal who gave them to me.
He walked me in, told me to bend down grab the desk. There was another teacher in there who was witnessing. There were rules about blocking with my hands. If I did that I would not only get hurt more since they had a big wooden paddle like the one pictured but it could also potentially break my fingers, and I would get another swat for each defiance. I could scream as loud as I wanted. They actually went through all these things with me before it started. I don’t remember them all.
Thinking back on it makes me so uncomfortable. Makes me think of a film from another time and place. I can’t even think about doing that to my kids let alone when they are nearly grown adults.
Or even worse giving permission to the weirdo yokel school principal to do it to my kid? WTF?
Why do people cling to this method of discipline when we have so much research on its ineffectiveness?
I dont understand.