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?

Here is an example of the use of the word shingle from Norwich New York, not an urban area.

CLICK

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?

Reported by American Way here

http://books.google.com/books?id=wpmDWZ0rjCcC
Tales from Kentucky one-room school teachers By William Lynwood Montell.

University Press of Kentucky, 12/01/2011 – Education – 293 pages

In an educational era defined by large school campuses and overcrowded classrooms, it is easy to overlook the era of one-room schools, when teachers filled every role, including janitor, and provided a family-like atmosphere in which children also learned from one another. In Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers, William Lynwood Montell reclaims an important part of Kentucky’s social, cultural, and educational heritage, assembling a fun and fascinating collection of schoolroom stories that chronicle a golden era in Kentucky.

The firsthand narratives and anecdotes in this collection cover topics such as teacher-student relationships, day-to-day activities, lunchtime foods, students’ personal relationships, and, of course, the challenges of teaching in a one-room school. Montell includes tales about fund-raising pie suppers, pranks, outrageous student behavior (such as the quiet little boy whose first “sharing” involved profanity), and variety of other topics. Montell even includes some of his own memories from his days as a pupil in a one-room school. Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers is a delightful glimpse of the history of education.

Snippets of oral history from old time, (mainly?) female teachers from small rural schools interviewed in 2008 and covering the period from the 1930’s (?) up to the 1950s or 60s. The hand, ruler, paddle (13 mentions) and switch (7) but not the cane, shingle or strap are mentioned.

Teachers were poorly paid and few men entered the profession. Possibly, the women used similar punishments in school as at home. Paddles were common household items, as were wooden spoons, hair brushes, etc.

The headline for the following news item suggests that by 1950 the paddle was so well established that paddling had become synonymous with smacking / spanking, terms which themselves are often used as euphemisms for something generally rather more harsh than being struck with the open hand.

The Bend Bulletin, Bend, Oregon
Wednesday May 10, 1950

Broad Paddle, Not Hickory, Recommended for Paddling

Lorain, O. (UP) School children here will be taught their “reading and writing and ‘rithmetic” to the tune of a broad paddle instead of the traditional hickory stick.

That’s the decision of a 100-page manual of regulations adopted by the Lorain school board.

The new rules state that when ail other corrective measures fail, corporal punishment may be administered by a broad paddle approved by the superintendent and the board of education.

The day when teachers fashioned their own custom-made weapons of discipline is a thing of the past. Each paddle used must be approved by the school board.

Place Prescribed

Student pranksters no longer need wonder where to anticipate one of teacher’s wild swings. The manual says punishment shall be administered by “striking the pupil across the buttocks with a broad paddle and in no other manner.”

A teacher with faulty aim may be suspend the school board.

To insure that the right technique is used, the rules require that two other members of the school witness the paddling.

Source

January 24, 2011

Follow Up:

Broad Paddle, Not Hickory, Recommended for Spanking

Bonham Daily Favorite May 7, 1950

CLICK

The regulations will prevent a teacher from wiping away the sting of a paper wad with one hand while reaching for his paddle with the other.

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?

The following is the item reported by American Way:

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/139 … %3Bseq=146
MARY OF PLYMOUTH

A Story of the Pilgrim Settlement
By JAMES OTIS KALER (1910)

Page 140-
HOW THE CHILDREN WERE PUNISHED

It must be set down that he was not indolent when it seemed to him that one of us should be punished. As Captain Standish said, after he had looked into the room to see James Billington whipped for having been idle, the teacher ‘ ‘had a rare brain for inventing instruments for discipline.”

It was the flapper which the captain had seen in use upon James, and surely it must have caused great pain when laid on with all Master Lyford’s strength. A piece of tanned buckskin, six inches square, with a round hole in the middle large enough for me to thrust my thumb through, fastened to a wooden handle, this was the flapper , and when it was brought down heavily upon one’s bare flesh, a blister was raised the full size of the hole in the leather.

He had also a tattling stick, which was made of half a dozen thick strips of deer hide fastened to a short handle, and when he flogged the children with it, they were forced to lie down over a log hewn with a sharp edge at the top. This sharp edge of wood, together with the blows from the stout thongs, caused great pain.

Master Lyford was not always so severe in his punishment. He had whispering-sticks, which were thick pieces of wood to be placed in a child’s mouth until it was forced wide open, and then each end of the stick was tied securely at the back of the scholar’s neck in such a way that he could make no manner of noise. Sarah wore one of these nearly two hours because of whispering to me, and when it was taken out, the poor child could not close her jaws until I had rubbed them gently during a long while.

Then there was the single-legged stool, upon which it was most tiring to sit, and this was given to the child who would not keep still upon his bench. I was forced to use it during one whole hour, because of drumming my feet upon the floor when the cold was most bitter, and the fire would not burn owing to the wood being so wet. It truly seemed to me, before the punishment was come to an end, as if my back had been broken.

Master Lyford was also provided with five or six dunce’s caps, made of birch bark, on which were painted in fair letters such names as ”Tell-Tale,” ”Bite-Finger-Baby,” “Lying Ananias,” ”Idle Boy,” and other ugly words.

However, I dare say this was for good, and went far toward aiding us in our studies. Master Allerton declares that there are no truer words in the Book, than those which teach us that to spare the rod is to spoil the child, and surely we of Plymouth were not spoiled in such manner by Master Lyford, nor by the other teachers who came to us later.

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?

KK :
“COBBING
A punishment sometimes inflicted at sea. It is performed by striking the offender a certain number of times on the breech with a flat piece of wood called the cobbing-board. It is chiefly used as a punishment to those who quit their station during the period of the night-watch.”

Should any employees of Costa Cruises be concerned?