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”);”>Hello American Way,

We are of one mind concerning the girls, and perhaps for the benefit of those who can’t be bothered to follow links it may be worth quoting the relevant passage:

However in addition to the problems already noted you failed to spot that the date of your report on Theodore Lee joining the army was 2 April 1918. The paddling case reports are February/March 1915, so Theodore joined the army more than three years after the paddling, not two as you stated. He was indeed a year or thereabouts younger than his elder brother.

I don’t do ‘Christmas spirit’ so I fear that it’s yet another swat for you, four in all. However Another_Lurker is nothing if not fair, so perhaps to maintain balance a couple of swats for me too. One for missing the latter error the first time round and another for breaching Matthew 7:5. Possibly debbie112 will accommodate us. Youth before age, so you first for the balance beam! </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?

Hello y’all’

Hope you folks are all having a peaceful holiday season.

Several issues to deal with here.

First here is the outcome of the investigation into the Dayton Principal.

2013 HERE

Most unsatisfactory! Oddly, I thought the woman hugging him was his wife, but it turns out to be the ISD’s director of instruction. Methinks this may not have been a very rigorous investigation. Strange result as he was leaving the service anyway. My questions

Does the ISD admit the tail bone was broken ? If so is this acceptable?

Did the principal use a baseball stance and two hands on the paddle. if so is this acceptable?

The bruising that we saw was in my mind NOT unreasonable or unacceptable but it depends on what the rest looked like .

I can understand that the ‘injury’ may not have been deliberate or intentional, but surely it was avoidable? Was there not at least some negligence involved ? Some unnecessary risk taking? If a parent had done this what would have been the reaction of child protective services? Most importantly would the ISD be prepared and content for this to happen again? The answer seems to be yes. Shame on you !

Now to turn to KK’s chart. First let me give the Irishman’s answer. I prefer not to start from here. The desk doesn’t give, in my mind, the clearest differentiation of the ‘elements ‘ of the target. When I use a balance bench it is easier as the butt being unsupported falls naturally into the bony upper part and the softer fleshy lower. If we have to use a desk (ie in the ‘mass’ paddling I reported) , I get the student to stand off the edge of the desk a little ( to stop the desk being pushed in hard if the paddle moves the kid forward), and I ask them to push their butt well out ( for safety), and to rest on their forearms , if possible grasping the far side of the desk . The behind is thus ‘soft’ and can absorb the paddle force safely ( if painfully !) Also the desk I used was of modern design and possibly a little lower. However the main safety here is to use a polycarbonate paddle. Thinner and with the devil of a sting ! You know if you are doing it right, you basically get a yelp with every lick!

However the two risks you need to avoid are the breaking of the tail bone (too high a lick), and the bruising damaging /breaking of the pelvic bones ( normally too heavy a paddle plus two handed or baseball type ‘home run’ hit). The ideal area is about 3 to 7 on the model. The lick must be one handed, it CAN involve moving weight forward onto the front foot, and a wrist flick, but it must not be a full blooded baseball stroke. The aim is to sting and possibly bruise the soft tissue, but NOT to hit so hard or deep as to damage the bony structures.

Sounds difficult but with practice you ‘know’ when you are right. As I say I have NEVER had a complaint. Although I do on occasion get a kid saying something like ‘ wow ma’am you gave me a real good couple of bruises to remember that paddling by yesterday’ . But its not said in an accusatory or malicious way. Bruising is a risk of the game, especially with hardwood. I tell that both to first timers and I remind parents if we speak on the phone. Want to avoid bad bruising? Choose the poly! But you will really feel the upfront sting ! At home my kids don’t get the choice, and the result is I rarely even have to threaten it !

I agree with KK 1 inch is far too thick for a paddle, my poly is ¼ and my others under ½ inch. And whilst on the subject , two comments on AL contribution. Firstly I strongly disapprove of giving ‘extra’ for bad language etc. Sure we shouldn’t encourage it, but a cuss often indicates the paddle has hit home and made its point ! Some cuss, most yelp, and quite a few cry, but a handful are quiet and just take it very bravely in silence. Which doesn’t bother me . I just make sure that are ok after the event and no damage has been done. Any doubt by myself or the witness, and they go to the sick bay and the school nurse.

I don’t see the point in hiding the paddle. I let the kid see it and handle it if they want to. There is nothing secretive or non transparent about a paddling. We (the witness and I) always ask if they have any questions before I invite them over to the bench.

Paddling hurts that’s the whole point, but there is no need for it to be brutal, secretive, treat the victim unpleasantly or to be uncaring. Most importantly NEVER injure! It may sound paradoxical but I do believe that although paddling is about inflecting significant pain for a few minutes especially in teenage years, you don’t have to be unkind about administering it. Indeed I believe its both more effective and much kinder than keeping a kid in a silent detention for hours writing meaningless lines or similar, or excluding them from a proper education.

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?

Staunton Spectator (Virginia), Tuesday March 13, 1877, page 1, col. 8.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ … d-1/seq-1/

THE HIDE-TANNING BIRCH ROD

The quick-falling birch rod, the keen, whistling birch rod,
The hide-tanning birch rod – oh ! the welts it would raise.

What was the nature of the device and what was its intended target?

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”);”>Hello KK,

With regard to the ‘hide-tanning birch rod’ described in the poem (or song) you quote, you ask:

There are of course clues to both factors in the lyric. The implement appears to have been effective through a coat:

We may therefore take it, I think, that it was not the spray birch used on the delicate nape of the neck and bared shoulders of refined young ladies in the very best Victorian schools. That implement would certainly not be effective through a coat, and nor would it raise welts as the implement in question apparently did.

And nor was it the more robust traditional birch rod consisting of a collection of thin switches bound together as once used in schools and in judicial CP. That implement would also not have been effective through a coat. Indeed it was said to only be effective on bare skin, and the delicate susceptibilities offended in baring the necessary portions of the offender’s anatomy, usually the buttocks, were one of the factors which led to its replacement by the rattan cane, which was effective through normal clothing. In addition that version of the birch rod did not leave traditional wheals, rather it brought about an overall reddening of the skin with what looked like irregular surface scratches.

It might I suppose have been along the style of the so-called ‘Isle of Man’ birch, a few long and stout switches bound together rather than several thinner ones. Even though normally used on the bare for psychological and practical effect that would doubtless have been effective through clothing, probably even through a coat. And it would probably have left pronounced welts from the impact of the individual cane like switches.

However IMHO the best guess has to be a single very stout switch of heavy cane like proportions perhaps ½ inch in diameter and 30 to 36 inches long. Possibly birch, possibly hazel or some other reasonably flexible tree cutting. That would account for the term ‘rod’ as used in its normal rather than classical context and such a rod would doubtless leave welts even through a coat. It would also be robust enough to withstand the described struggles for possession by the recipient seeking to avert punishment.

As for the target area, well we are told that:

Clearly the back and shoulders. That’s why the coat got ‘burnt’ rather than the trousers! </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?

My Most Embarrassing Moment. Struck a Shadow. Barrel stave. Under Part Seven. Chicago Sunday Tribune. July 24, 1921.

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?

In early educational thought, moral suasion was often paired against corporal punishment as a means of achieving school discipline.

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Industrialization of America, 1861-1900 [. . .] much had changed in common schools after the Civil War. Women increasingly replaced men as teachers, in part an attempt by educators to base classroom discipline and learning upon what they termed moral suasion rather than corporal punishment. Troublemakers, of course, still remained in the classroom. Boys in particular were into mischief, especially as they grew to be larger, lustier, and more masculine according to one Illinois school official. School officials increasingly drew a hard disciplinary line, however, expelling young rowdies into the work world rather than submitting to their antics.

[. . .]

Source

Depriving the “lusty” of their education for “being boys” was unacceptable when education became compulsory. SCP returned to favour, albeit in modified less skin-marking forms.

The following are the earliest mentions of the school paddle I have found. They have been previously noted in the postings above and are repeated here for convenience. The come from a period when compulsory education was beginning.

____________________________

The Worthington Advance (Minnesota) February 19, 1880
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ … d-1/seq-5/

Danger in Proverbs

The proverb, “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done to-day,” has gotten me into indescribable trouble. It was about the first thing my school teacher told me, and when I took my vacation on Friday, instead of putting it off till Saturday I was arranged in an uncomfortable position over that school master’s knee and paddled in a manner that I thought should have been put off till next day.

____________________________

Public Ledger. (Memphis, Tenn.), 11 Nov. 1882, page 2, col. 5.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ … d-1/seq-2/

[. . .]

Suddenly, Talleyrand, in one of his most telling points of a joke, stopped and clapped his hands behind him on that part of the human body which, in my boyhood, was considered the channel to knowledge by the old paddling and feruling school teachers. In an instant more be sprang into the air with the yell of a royal Bengal tiger.

[. . .]

____________________________

Belmont Chronicle (Ohio) March 05, 1885
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ … d-1/seq-3/

It is said that a single room of the Bellaire schools raised 4.5 pounds of coffee, by taking three grains only from each pupil. Now, we do not wish to be doubting, but our devil being of an inquisitive and mathematical turn of mind, has figured on this matter, with the following result: Weighing an ounce of coffee, he finds there are 214 grains, which would be 3,424 grains to the pound, and 15,408 grains in 4.5 pounds. Three grains to the pupil would make this a school of 5,136 pupils. We pity the school ma’am who has to paddle this flock.

____________________________

The Herald, Carroll, Iowa, January 11, 1887
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qB … 41,4376026

Brutal Treatment

They must have a brutal teacher in one of the schools at Council Bluffs, and a Board of Education, which, if not in favor of the brutal treatment, is at least willing to tolerate it in school government. Not long ago, according to a Register correspondent, a child, a frail boy of 11 years, was whipped for his failure to commit to memory a small composition. The Instrument used was a hickory club or “paddle“, three feet long, one-half inch thick and one and one-half inches wide, and the punishment was administered by bending the boy over a desk. The bruises on the tender flesh of the little child from the blows of the heavy club were of a severe nature, and a few hours afterwards were as large as goose eggs. Physicians testified to having examined the child at periods ranging from three to nine days after the injuries were inflicted and found the parts swollen and inflamed, and after a period of nineteen days the discolorations were still visible. The school board sustained the teacher in the use of the club. The case is considered to be one of such serious nature, that it will most certainly reach Superintendent Sabin in the course of events.

It is a debatable question, whether or not corporal punishment should be abolished in school government. Experienced and successful teachers are divided on this point and repeated efforts to do away with the rod have been defeated by the Legislature. The sense of the majority seems to be, that properly used, the rod is not a baneful [= harmful] auxiliary to the proper control of our public schools. The sentiment, however, which sustains such brutal and inhuman treatment as that alleged to have been administered by the Council Bluffs teacher is fully a century behind the times. It is such instances as this, in which the right to use the rod on the children of others is grossly and brutally abused, that makes a public demand to brand corporal punishment with the seal of legislative disapproval.

KK While no mention of the word “paddle” the white ash stick with description might be of some interest. American Way