Why I support the use of the paddle

KK made an interesting comment to EAL on the ‘is the paddle suitable for school ‘ thread. It is worth reproducing KK comments in full :

Most would agree that punishments need to be proportional but it is quite unclear how severe SCP needs to be to be useful. My teachers had the view that:

“The cane should never be a laughing matter.”

“If you use the cane you should use it well.”

“You do a boy no favours if you don’t lay it on hard.”

In my day respect, was directly related to a teacher’s ability to cane, assuming they did cane. The cane had to land on target and really hurt. I have no idea of current attitudes in the USA South.

Although in some ways I’ve addressed these questions piecemeal in my various replies, I thought it might be useful for me to set out in one place my views on the efficacy and otherwise of the paddle as an element of discipline in school and at home.

I believe my views are pretty consistent with other pro paddlers in the south, so this might produce an interesting discussion around in what circumstances corporal punishment is effective in a High School setting.

Basic assumptions.

I do NOT believe paddling should be used in elementary school. Personally I would restrict its use to say 12-18 years old.Why? Personally I don’t think paddling is appropriate as a punishment for simple misunderstandings. It should be used for DELIBERATE actions, or at least those from which negative consequences might flow. When you are in elementary school, you are learning the rules.

Once you reach high school (including Junior high/Middle school) you should have learned the basic rules of social interaction. It is therefore reasonable to impose penalties for making ‘wrong’ choices. To me the imposition of a painful punishment is totally appropriate, as the reason for its imposition is that the student had deliberately chosen to break the code of conduct.

I will NEVER use corporal punishment as a consequence of a failure to learn. I will impose it for repeated and deliberate failure to complete homework (laziness), but NOT for failure to achieve a test score or a certain grade in written work.

To me corporal punishment has certain advantages over other methods of discipline. Unlike lines and work detentions it doesn’t send mixed messages. We want learning to be exciting and stimulating. To use it as punishment for conduct failures, sends a mixed message. Academic work should never be used as a punishment. However to use spanking sends an unambiguous message of disapproval, and it is a message which is sharp, delivered quickly, and is self contained. It is also delivered individually to each miscreant . The punishment is seen as, in this sense, directly personal. Group punishments, like class dentitions, have the disadvantage of punishing the guilty with the innocent,The same is true of restriction of privileges, or the imposition of additional tasks. Isolation and suspension devalue the educational experience offered to the student, and this cannot be a good thing .

Which offenses?

I think there are a large variety of offenses which can effectively be punished by paddling. I would include the more venal crimes, stealing, lying, cheating, bullying, fighting. These crimes need swift and severe consequences. But it is equally effective for disrespect ( sass, insolence, name calling), failure to follow instructions ( talking in class, failure to follow safety advice), as well as skipping class, and failure to undertake homework.

I am less convinced about its usefulness in offenses like tardy to class and uniform infractions, which I fell can cover up as much as they reveal about the reason for non compliance.

How Hard?

One of the essential elements of a corporal punishment regime is the question how hard should we punish? I believe from the get go that in high school the bar must be set high. If a teenager is to learn, they have to experience severe pain. The punishment should be hard , but short lived. A couple of minutes of real pain, followed by a longer period of reflection. The ideal punishment will leave the teenager with a real stinging reminder of their offense, acutely painful for a few minutes, but causing no permanent damage.

It is no use giving a half hearted paddling. It will fail in all its objectives. Teenagers have short memories, and need the punishment to hurt and to be memorable for a long time. A spanking which achieves tears or yelps fits the bill. At the end of the paddling the student should feel the sting imparted to be unbearable . Many students will exhibit this in different ways, by tears, by vocal yells during administration, being unable to stay still after the licks have been completed,

I find that many students will cry full on for maybe ten minutes following five really hard licks. Give them time to compose themselves before returning them to class, but remind them that it is only their own actions that brought them to this.

General points.

Do I believe in corporal punishment without option? Whilst I’ll support the historical development of choice over the paddle in school, my own preference would be to have compulsory corporal punishment. There are very few students who can’t benefit from the occasional dose of the paddle, and there is a lot to be said for all students facing an identical punishment for the identical breach of the rules.

Personally I think it is appropriate right through 12 to 18 both at home and school, but this probably reflects the social mores of rural Mississippi. For example there is nothing which brings an 18 year old to heel more than the embarrassment of bending over for a hard paddling to reward a night of broken curfew, drinking under age (21), and using false identity. A well paddled behind and the tears that go with it reminds them that they just acted as a silly little girl, not a mature young woman. At school the senior feels 12 years old when bending over my balance bench waiting for their licks.

There is nothing more effective to put down the arrogance of late teenage years. I don’t believe it is in any way sex/gender or race specific.It can be used effectively across the whole spectrum of students in High School.

This doesn’t mean you ignore the precepts of good counselling. Once the punishment has been given there is no reason why you can’t help the student towards making better choices in future, and in reassuring them that this slip hasn’t spoiled their relationship with you or the school. The beauty of the paddle is that it can be a one off punishment soon put behind everyone . Unlike long detentions or withdrawal of privileges it is over and done with quickly and finally .

I travel the country and visit schools in all regions. Those with the paddle are far better behaved, more respectful, more serious academic environments. I have no doubt that many small elite schools catering for the hyper intelligent can dispose of the paddle without loss, but for most students it is a useful fallback which keeps the older teen in touch with reality.

I would say at home and school you don’t need to use the paddle a lot, but when you do use it make sure you make it count. I’ve found at home that when a paddling is given it helps to be be heard right through the house. The yelps ,tears, and the repeated crack of the paddle as it teaches its lesson,echoes round the house, and improves the behavior of the whole family, not just the culprit! I always punish at home in the kitchen , and I leave the door ajar so the sounds can be heard throughout the home. I’m sure the reports of paddling at school and the sight of behinds delicately sitting carefully in class does the same in school.

debbie112 I think in this case we will agree to disagree agreeably. In exceptional circumstances parents should have a non-corporal alternative for a sanction. The potential for abuse scares me in light of my personal history. My Dad of blessed memory was a WWII veteran who respected the fact that I was willing to put my life on the line by being a medic. I believe then as I do now that the enemy is made in the image and likeness of God and should be treated as such except in self-defense. I know many Quakers who are practicing non-violence. I am a Catholic that believes in St Augustine’s definition of a just war. I argued that the Vietnam war could not meet that criteria. As taxpayers a pacifists conscience shouldn’t mean expulsions. And what other option would you have? I doubt if an appellant made a case that paddling was an act of violence the courts would force a child to go to a private school or homeschool.

We are extremely small. Over half of the members and attenders are connected with Ole Miss, as students, staff, or teachers. Over half of the members and attenders are connected with Ole Miss, as students, staff, or teachers.

CLICK

KK made an interesting comment to EAL on the ‘is the paddle suitable for school ‘ thread. It is worth reproducing KK comments in full :

Most would agree that punishments need to be proportional but it is quite unclear how severe SCP needs to be to be useful. My teachers had the view that:

“The cane should never be a laughing matter.”

“If you use the cane you should use it well.”

“You do a boy no favours if you don’t lay it on hard.”

In my day respect, was directly related to a teacher’s ability to cane, assuming they did cane. The cane had to land on target and really hurt. I have no idea of current attitudes in the USA South.

Although in some ways I’ve addressed these questions piecemeal in my various replies, I thought it might be useful for me to set out in one place my views on the efficacy and otherwise of the paddle as an element of discipline in school and at home.

I believe my views are pretty consistent with other pro paddlers in the south, so this might produce an interesting discussion around in what circumstances corporal punishment is effective in a High School setting.

Basic assumptions.

I do NOT believe paddling should be used in elementary school. Personally I would restrict its use to say 12-18 years old.Why? Personally I don’t think paddling is appropriate as a punishment for simple misunderstandings. It should be used for DELIBERATE actions, or at least those from which negative consequences might flow. When you are in elementary school, you are learning the rules.

Once you reach high school (including Junior high/Middle school) you should have learned the basic rules of social interaction. It is therefore reasonable to impose penalties for making ‘wrong’ choices. To me the imposition of a painful punishment is totally appropriate, as the reason for its imposition is that the student had deliberately chosen to break the code of conduct.

I will NEVER use corporal punishment as a consequence of a failure to learn. I will impose it for repeated and deliberate failure to complete homework (laziness), but NOT for failure to achieve a test score or a certain grade in written work.

To me corporal punishment has certain advantages over other methods of discipline. Unlike lines and work detentions it doesn’t send mixed messages. We want learning to be exciting and stimulating. To use it as punishment for conduct failures, sends a mixed message. Academic work should never be used as a punishment. However to use spanking sends an unambiguous message of disapproval, and it is a message which is sharp, delivered quickly, and is self contained. It is also delivered individually to each miscreant . The punishment is seen as, in this sense, directly personal. Group punishments, like class dentitions, have the disadvantage of punishing the guilty with the innocent,The same is true of restriction of privileges, or the imposition of additional tasks. Isolation and suspension devalue the educational experience offered to the student, and this cannot be a good thing .

Which offenses?

I think there are a large variety of offenses which can effectively be punished by paddling. I would include the more venal crimes, stealing, lying, cheating, bullying, fighting. These crimes need swift and severe consequences. But it is equally effective for disrespect ( sass, insolence, name calling), failure to follow instructions ( talking in class, failure to follow safety advice), as well as skipping class, and failure to undertake homework.

I am less convinced about its usefulness in offenses like tardy to class and uniform infractions, which I fell can cover up as much as they reveal about the reason for non compliance.

How Hard?

One of the essential elements of a corporal punishment regime is the question how hard should we punish? I believe from the get go that in high school the bar must be set high. If a teenager is to learn, they have to experience severe pain. The punishment should be hard , but short lived. A couple of minutes of real pain, followed by a longer period of reflection. The ideal punishment will leave the teenager with a real stinging reminder of their offense, acutely painful for a few minutes, but causing no permanent damage.

It is no use giving a half hearted paddling. It will fail in all its objectives. Teenagers have short memories, and need the punishment to hurt and to be memorable for a long time. A spanking which achieves tears or yelps fits the bill. At the end of the paddling the student should feel the sting imparted to be unbearable . Many students will exhibit this in different ways, by tears, by vocal yells during administration, being unable to stay still after the licks have been completed,

I find that many students will cry full on for maybe ten minutes following five really hard licks. Give them time to compose themselves before returning them to class, but remind them that it is only their own actions that brought them to this.

General points.

Do I believe in corporal punishment without option? Whilst I’ll support the historical development of choice over the paddle in school, my own preference would be to have compulsory corporal punishment. There are very few students who can’t benefit from the occasional dose of the paddle, and there is a lot to be said for all students facing an identical punishment for the identical breach of the rules.

Personally I think it is appropriate right through 12 to 18 both at home and school, but this probably reflects the social mores of rural Mississippi. For example there is nothing which brings an 18 year old to heel more than the embarrassment of bending over for a hard paddling to reward a night of broken curfew, drinking under age (21), and using false identity. A well paddled behind and the tears that go with it reminds them that they just acted as a silly little girl, not a mature young woman. At school the senior feels 12 years old when bending over my balance bench waiting for their licks.

There is nothing more effective to put down the arrogance of late teenage years. I don’t believe it is in any way sex/gender or race specific.It can be used effectively across the whole spectrum of students in High School.

This doesn’t mean you ignore the precepts of good counselling. Once the punishment has been given there is no reason why you can’t help the student towards making better choices in future, and in reassuring them that this slip hasn’t spoiled their relationship with you or the school. The beauty of the paddle is that it can be a one off punishment soon put behind everyone . Unlike long detentions or withdrawal of privileges it is over and done with quickly and finally .

I travel the country and visit schools in all regions. Those with the paddle are far better behaved, more respectful, more serious academic environments. I have no doubt that many small elite schools catering for the hyper intelligent can dispose of the paddle without loss, but for most students it is a useful fallback which keeps the older teen in touch with reality.

I would say at home and school you don’t need to use the paddle a lot, but when you do use it make sure you make it count. I’ve found at home that when a paddling is given it helps to be be heard right through the house. The yelps ,tears, and the repeated crack of the paddle as it teaches its lesson,echoes round the house, and improves the behavior of the whole family, not just the culprit! I always punish at home in the kitchen , and I leave the door ajar so the sounds can be heard throughout the home. I’m sure the reports of paddling at school and the sight of behinds delicately sitting carefully in class does the same in school.

Click to expand…

Debbie,

Thanks for that lucid and well-argued case for retaining corporal punishment. Fortunately (or unfortunately) in the UK this has been redundant for the last thirty years in state schools and for twenty in private schools, although most of the latter dispensed with it well before the canes were seized from their cold, dead hands!

There were several problems in the UK which I believe enhanced this and has made the comeback of any kind of CP totally unviable. One was that, in European terms, even in the 1980s Britain was an anachronism and we would soon have fallen foul of European legislation. Of course, many teachers and heads SHOULD have fallen foul of existing UK legislation except that there wasn’t really any, so many of these men (and not a few women) could beat children to the extent of causing serious bruising and lacerations. Well, when I say “children” I really mean boys – relatively few girls schools employed corporal punishment and often in mixed schools only boys were subject to it, a disgracefully sexist situation of course but we are talking at least 30 years ago for most real-life accounts. Beating girls was risky, even in those days there was always the delicious whiff of kinkiness and perversion which would put any physical punishment meted out to a girl on the front page of newspapers (does NOBODY think that way in Mississippi??). Also, especially in the case of boarding schools, if boys could be caned severely and with impunity, then they could be sexually abused in like manner. Like many such things, buggery by older boys or masters was not unknown in many schools but swept under the carpet until in the current climate there is an appetite for digging up such things. As a result, beating and buggery are firmly conjoined in many peoples’ minds in the UK.

With proper disciplinary matrices and limits set out in handbooks, parental co-operation, witnesses and (not least) the very real prospect of litigation in the case of excess, you will probably be able to keep paddling away until you retire, but in the UK I’m afraid the former criminals in the teaching profession have rendered this completely impossible.

Since most of the states do not have paddling it is being taught in schools and may come to some as a surprise.  I think the last sentence many of our posters would be in agreement.

“The paddle may have been originally invented for the punishment of slaves as a way of causing intense pain without doing any permanent damage to the recipient. It is not only in former slave states that the paddle has been used in schools. It is not known why or exactly when it became the normal implement for corporal punishment in US schools.”

It may come to some of our UK readers surprising that teenagers (one out of eight) are spanked ergo paddles are not collecting dusts in some states. 

“The results of a national household survey indicate that paddling is a discipline technique that 10% of parents are “very likely to use”. The percentage of parents who say that they are very likely to paddle increases to 12% when involving teenagers.”

https://www.k12academics.com/school-dis … e-spanking

School Corporal Punishment from the same site.

https://www.k12academics.com/school-dis … punishment

The above video should be prefaced with this one.  BTW I checked paddling stats in her school and none were reported.  There are about 3% paddled reported in her school parish (Livingston).  Parish French rooted word for county found only in Louisiana).

CathyG wrote:Very interesting clips on todays school environment.  They now call the parents before they paddle you.  In my day there were no such calls, you just got it.  Also for me, the head of the school was my uncle who was my dads brother and they, like all did then, agreed that the Lord approved of heat to the seat when needed.

From my experience, swats with ruler to hands were common and parents never knew…but any considered “serious” punishment(usually behavior issues after being warned) at the office, ruler/strap(hands or bottom)or even detentions a note went home and had to be signed acknowledging what you did and the punishment you received …which in turn just meant that a strapping at home would be happening because of the note!! no matter how big of a offense it was at school or if it was just a detention!

I like you do not remember a phone call home before that i was aware of.

I never experienced the swatting of hands in my school.  It was always applied to the behind.

Emily1945 wrote:I never experienced the swatting of hands in my school.  It was always applied to the behind.

i do not recall seeing many bottoms swatted in class room setting, and not with the ruler, of course my experiences were more in the office and bottom swatted! then good old strap at home