In the US state where I grew up, there was a law against corporal punishment by class teachers. However, school principals were allowed to spank misbehaving students.

Some principals never spanked, others did. There had to be another adult present as a witness. My mother was a school secretary, and I remember her telling me once that she had to observe a boy getting a spanking with a ruler on the seat of his trousers.

At that time, grades eight through 12 were included in high school. I started the eighth grade in 1950. Physical education was a compulsory class three times a week. About half of the classes were outdoors or in the gym and the other half in the swimming pool. It was in this pool that the teachers ignored the rule against corporal punishment – and it wasn’t a ruler on the seat of the trousers. At this time, just about everywhere in the US, boys in swimming classes were bare-ass naked.

I remember one time, when a student had mouthed off to the teacher, we all stood and watched as the teacher applied his slipper to the boy’s buttocks. I’m sure no-one ever reported this to the authorities.

This was the only time I saw a teacher hit a student. However, spankings were part of almost every class – and the teacher made us do it ourselves. The spanking offense was not getting out of the pool fast enough when the teacher blew the whistle to end the class.

When that happened, we would all start to count out loud from one to 10. Anyone who couldn’t get out of the pool in those ten seconds had to walk between two lines of students, hands on his head as they spanked his  bottom.

The teacher would warn us that if anyone didn’t spank, or spank hard enough, they too would have to walk between the two lines and be duly punished.