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?

Yes, it would be great if <strong>prof.n</strong> could, “access the Temple University ‘official’ school CP figures”. I hold in my hand a copy of “<em>Corporal Punishment in American Education</em>” written by Irwin A. Hyman and James H. Wise, Temple University Press, 1979. This 471 page book is full of tables and figures, and yet it is astonishing that no state-wide figures like what we seek are presented. The best I can find on Florida (p.220) is a survey for Miami in 1976…

<p style=”margin-right:0px;”><em>”The Miami Survey covered the first forty-five days of school in the fall of 1975. During those forty-five days, Northwestern Senior High School recorded 193 paddlings, or 4 to 5 every school day. At Westview Junior High the self-reported score was 307; that means that if there is a seven-period day, not a class period went by without someone taking a heating. On the other hand, 99 schools out of 242 reported no instances.”</em>

I’m surprised that, if in Dr. Hyman’s research, he compiled all these state-wide statistics, that he didn’t bother to publish them in his work.

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?

I don’t think it would be helpful to get into a discussion of the problems of the late Professor’s work there was some debate of this a year or so ago on the forum , when one of his erstwhile research associates wrote in . I refer you to the post here

I think you’ll realise that the two precesses, collating government stats ( presumably a ‘cash cow’) proceeded quasi independently of research findings which , especially when presented by the Late Professor do tend to be selective to support his personal research agenda. Unfortunately what was in the first place rather partial data , and used significantly different collection methods, then has wound up be re categorised for policy reasons and therefore – well broad brush, or bricolage , which I prefer is a better way of describing it .

So we cant wholly rely on the data, but equally there is no possibility of going back and reassessing it ! But we do know some things. first the distribution of cp incidents has always been piecemeal depending on school, school board, and the administration in each school. Secondly heavy paddling schools from about the mid 80’s onwards are readily identifiable, and have certain characteristics.So in my mind the data has two specific uses. firstly it gives a broad brush perception of the decline of cp over the last 30 /40 years. the figures are COMPARATIVELY quite accurate and useful although of themselves , may be wide of the mark by plus or minus say 25%. The data illustrates differences between schools, which reflects different social positioning and social mores of the population. Paddling does not exist in a vacuum : it needs community support to thrive.

So I’ll see if there is any accessible aggregated data, and that on individual school organisations. What isn’t open to dispute is the change over the years. My friend Jackie and other friends of hers that I know , all of whom grew up , for example in late 50’s Texas recall the paddle as an everyday issue. Hardly a day went by but what someone was ‘dealt with’ in the hall from their class, sometimes more than one in a lesson. But the paddle wasn’t seen as a major punishment , it was the regular response to any minor infraction. By the 70’s paddling was more organised , but still frequent and could be seen ‘anywhere’ in the schools , but by 1980 most was administered by the Principalship. There were still queues for the paddle for ‘tardys’ and the like , but more enlightened teachers were slowly eating away at the routine recourse to the board as a cure all.

Now the Renee generations are different again. Th paddle is more frequently seen as an ultimate deterrent , rarely used. In the fifties few students if any got through school without getting the paddle, but most got it, or the belt, at home as well. today many students never face physical punishment and their whole psyche is differently attuned. there still are exceptions – some largely black schools, some Native American , some in poor and rural ‘god fearing’ districts. But the social organisation of paddling is now geographically and socially specific, in a way it didn’t used to be .

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?

Hi <strong>prof.n</strong>, thank you for pointing out that link – it’s very informative. (I certainly do not want to “debate” his work, it is what it is and regardless of the opinions he held, this is a contribution to the knowledge base on the subject). By the way, the perspective you just gave above is, I think, very much spot-on. There’s nothing there that I couldn’t completely agree with. Even from the cultural differences closer to home, those observations ring true and were mirrored here.

But if you are able to access and relay some bulk data, it would shed some interesting light on this.

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?

<div style=”width:100%;background-image:url(/realm/A_L_123/A_L_trg.gif);”>Hi Prof.n,

In some haste, so rather brief for me! If it was available the ideal would be the Florida plot immediately preceding the one you provided in your February 17 2013, 11:32 PM contribution above. If they follow the same pattern this would cover 1984/85 thru’ 1989/90.

But are we not in the wrong place here? We are a little way from KK’s title theme, and not surprisingly he does guard this thread rather zealously as it contains some excellent research.</div>

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?

Thanks EAL. The discussion is indeed in danger of straying too far off topic. However, the problem of determining what happened in schools in past times is relevant. It is clear we can never know for sure. Only when diverse independent sources of information are in agreement can we be confident.

Policy and bylaws, school board rules, etc. describe what was meant to happen. The rules were subject to interpretation and often seem to have been ignored, especially for “minor” punishments.

Official documents and records including punishment books. There is lots of evidence that these were often very incomplete.

Contemporary newspaper and court reports cover only the exceptional or news worthy events.

Teacher’s recollections suffer from bias, self interest and are generally reworked recollections of long ago. Our memories tend to evolve with retelling and with time.

Student recollections tend to be dominated by those with axes to grind and are generally reworked recollections of long ago.

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 Are you sure there that there is no paddle (shingle) in that drawing? It’s hard to tell in this crude drawing but it raised some doubts for me.