The paddle seems to be very much the preferred implement in USA schools. When did it first come into widespread use? I am particularly interested in early mentions of the school paddle in dated factual or fictional literature, and in official documents.

Have other cultures used the paddle in schools?

http://books.google.ca/books?ei=IperToP … RKAQAAIAAJ

Biennial report and opinions of the Attorney General of the state of Illinois Illinois. Attorney General’s Office, State Printers, 1917

Page 970-
SCHOOLS – CORPORAL PUNISHMENT OF PUPILS – WHAT PERMISSIBLE – LAW CONSIDERED There is no law prescribing the instrument to be used by a school teacher in the punishment of pupils. Such a law would be exceedingly unwise and improper. A small switch may be used more cruelly by one person than a leather strap, or a wooden paddle, by another person.

General principles of law prevailing, as announced in the text books, are to the effect that in order to compel compliance with reasonable rules and regulations, a school teacher may inflict reasonable corporal punishment upon a pupil for disobedience, insubordination, or other gross misconduct.

The teacher, however, must adapt the punishment to the nature of the offense and to the age and mental condition and personal attributes of the offending pupil; and, considering the circumstances and conditions of the particular offense and the particular pupil, the punishment must not be inflicted with such force, or in such manner, as to cause the same to be cruel, excessive, wanton or malicious.

The question whether punishment inflicted in a particular instance was cruel, excessive, wanton or malicious, is a question for the courts, to be decided by court or jury after hearing and considering all the circumstances and conditions connected with the particular case.

October 11, 1916.

Mr. J. M. Simmons, R. P. D. No. 2. Grantsburg, I11.

DEAR SIR: I have your letter of October 9, inquiring what punishment teachers in the common public schools are allowed to administer and what they are allowed to use in administering punishment. You state that your teacher has been using a leather strap and a wooden paddle, and that he whipped a small boy with the leather strap until the blood ran down his leg and he whipped another small boy with the wooden paddle and made a stripe about four inches long and a half an inch wide, almost bloodshot. You further state that section 114 of the School Law says that the directors can adopt and enforce all necessary rules and regulations for the management and government of the public schools of their district, and you also state that the directors in this instance were called in and instructed the teacher to use a small switch but that the teacher claims he may punish with anything he chooses.

It is apparent from your letter that this is a matter in which it would be entirely improper and beyond my powers to interfere. It would appear that the controversy is between the teacher and the board of directors. If the board of directors wish any advice, the School Law provides that it is the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to construe the law.

I think a little reflection will convince you that it would not do for two departments of the State Government to take jurisdiction over the same matter; such action might result in a conflict between the two departments and interfere with the orderly conduct of the affairs of the government.

However, there is one sentence in your letter which, perhaps, calls for further explanation. You state that you know that I know all about what a teacher is allowed to punish with and how much and that you will be very glad for me to tell you.

There is no law fixing “what a teacher is allowed to punish with” and it would be a very bad law, if it existed. A small switch may be used more cruelly by one person than a leather strap or wooden paddle by another person. The law is as stated in the Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure:

“As a general rule a school teacher, in an far as it may be reasonably necessary to the maintenance of the discipline and efficiency of the school, and to compel a compliance with reasonable rules and regulations, may inflict reasonable corporal punishments upon a pupil for insubordination, disobedience, or other misconduct, . The infliction of corporal punishment by a teacher is largely within his discretion; but he must exercise sound discretion and judgment in determining the necessity for corporal punishment and the reasonableness thereof, under the varying circumstances of each particular case, and must adapt the punishment to the nature of the offense and to the age and mental condition and personal attributes of the offending pupil, and, considering the circumstances and conditions of the particular offense and pupil, the punishment must not be inflicted with such force or in such manner as to cause it to be cruel or excessive, or wanton or malicious.” 35 Cyc. 1137.

Whether the punishment inflicted was cruel or excessive, or wanton or malicious is a question for the courts, to be decided by a jury after considering the circumstances and conditions of the particular punishment in question.

Very respectfully,
P. J. Lucey, Attorney General.

The paddle seems to be very much the preferred implement in USA schools. When did it first come into widespread use? I am particularly interested in early mentions of the school paddle in dated factual or fictional literature, and in official documents.

Have other cultures used the paddle in schools?

There is clear evidence that both wood and leather paddles were used on slaves and later for prison discipline. The punishments were often very severe and various investigations were conducted: The following is an excerpt from one such.

______________________________________

Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, 1882 v.5.

STATE OF NEW YORK

No. 131

IN ASSEMBLY, May 5, 1882

TESTIMONY TAKEN BEFORE THE ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON STATE PRISONS IN THE INVESTIGATION OF SING SING PRISON
Page 35-

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2998328 … %3Bseq=787

[. . .]

Q. Have you any knowledge of the amount or degree of punishment inflicted in the prison?
A. Yes, sir; a general knowledge.

Q. Are there any other kinds of punishment employed in the prison.
A. The dark cell – locking up in the dark cell.

[. . .]

The paddle seems to be very much the preferred implement in USA schools. When did it first come into widespread use? I am particularly interested in early mentions of the school paddle in dated factual or fictional literature, and in official documents.

Have other cultures used the paddle in schools?

May 23, 1882Report of the Committee on State Prisons Concerning the Management of the State Prison at Sing Singhttp://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2998328 … %3Bseq=337

[Assem. Doc. No. 120.]

By resolution of this House your committee were charged with the duty of investigating the charges made against the management of the State prison located a Sing Sing. These charges were, in substance,

“that the prison was run in the interest of the contractors;

that the moral welfare of the convicts is neglected;

that many of them are compelled to work on Sundays;

that certain notorious criminals are treated with distinguished consideration, while others in a sick and enfeebled condition are treated with great severity; and

that other serious evils exist in connection with the management of said prison.”

These charges were made by Mr. Elihu E. Campbell, a discharged keeper of the prison, and by certain discharged prisoners, and were extensively published in the New York Herald and other leading papers. Most of the charges related, it is true, to prisoners long since deceased, and reflected rather upon the preceding than upon the present management of the prison. But the gravity of the charges, and the earnestness of those who made and circulated them, seemed to demand an investigation of them. We have, therefore, examined a large number of witnesses, including the warden, physician, principal keeper, and other officers of the prison, ex-keepers, contractors, prisoners and discharged prisoners, in relation to the charges in question, and have carefully considered the same. Our conclusions are embodied in the following propositions:

[. . .]

May 5, 1882 Testimony Taken Before the Assembly Committee on State Prisons in the Investigation of Sing Sing Prisonhttp://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2998328 … %3Bseq=753

[Assem. Doc. No. 131.]

The paddle seems to be very much the preferred implement in USA schools. When did it first come into widespread use? I am particularly interested in early mentions of the school paddle in dated factual or fictional literature, and in official documents.

Have other cultures used the paddle in schools?

European penalism and French paddling was the likely precursor of US hazing and the fraternity paddle. The slave paddle may also have contributed to US fraternity practice.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA – UNIVERSITY LECTURES DELIVERED BY MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY IN THE FREE PUBLIC LECTURE COURSE
1914-1915

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2983461 … =%3Bseq=57

Page 51-
STUDENT LIFE AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES By Daniel B. Shumway
Professor of German Philology, University of Pennsylvania

To us in this age of universal education and compulsory schooling, when it is a rare thing to find an illiterate person, it seems hard to realize that there was a time in the history of man, and that not much more than a millennium ago, when children did not have to go to school, when they did not have to spend several hours every day in poring over their books, but were free to roam in the open air through the fields and forests; but such was the case. Before the advent of Christianity in Northern Europe, schools, in the strict sense of the word, were unknown. Children were, of course, taught how to use weapons, to hunt, to till the soil or instructed in some useful occupation or means of earning a livelihood, but education, in the way we use it today, did not exist.

[. . .]

Page 67

In France the [initiation] ceremony was somewhat different, the new student being looked upon not as a wild animal, but as a criminal who had to be first tried, then purged of his sins. From the institutes of the University of Avignon we learn that the freshmen had to serve the seniors at table, were not allowed to stand between them and the fire, were not permitted to sit at the first table nor to address each other as “domine” – i. e., sir. Whenever the “beanus” transgressed these rules his punishment consisted of a prescribed number of blows with a wooden paddle. During the purgation at the University of Aix, the “beanus” received three blows with a frying pan or a book from each one present. From a chance allusion we learn that it was the custom at the Sorbonne in Paris to wash the freshmen on Innocents’ Day. Previous to the ceremony of washing they had to ride upon donkeys in a procession through the streets of the city.

The university students of that day had not the freedom which they now enjoy. They were, as a rule, somewhat younger than is now the case, the average age of a freshman being from thirteen to sixteen, and they were treated as schoolboys who must be looked after. In fact, the medieval university resembled a big boarding school. The teachers and students, especially of the course in arts, lived together in the university buildings. Each university had several colleges to which the students belonged, just as in England today. When the number of students was too great to be accommodated in the university buildings, the different teachers or masters were allowed to keep boarding houses for the students. As all the living expenses were paid from a common purse – in Latin, “bursa” – the students were called “bursae.” This word has survived in the German word “Bursch,” meaning a fellow or lad, and in the English “bursar” or “purser,” really the keeper of the purse.

[. . .]