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?

Pro-paddling conservatives are more likely to meet and marry those of similar social and political beliefs. They are likely to begat conservative pro-paddling children.

KK I have alluded to something akin to this when I mentioned that students preparing to become teachers go to regional colleges. Many of these regional colleges will now have student body members that have never have seen or felt the benefit of their peers paddled.

Paula has asked for a name of a college that teaches its students how to paddle. That’s a silly question. The question should be better put, “are there professors that have come from districts still within that region that will be supportive of corporal punishment and under what circumstances? By circumstances I mean by offenses and grade levels.

When it’s these rookie educators turn to call the shots as seasoned teachers, coaches and administrators will paddles be seen only on history tours? A state like Florida, as a vacation haven and retirement community has attracted a diverse population. Florida has had a precipitous fall in numbers like no other state. In other words, how long can these paddling states remain insular?

KK, I’m not so sure that the paddle was not used as an instrument of correction when boys were more likely be in schools than girls. The rod and the ferule could have given way to the “shingle” as a dedicated instrument of correction. I won’t argue the point for as we all know you are the maestro when it comes to facts about the paddle. American Way.

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 are few contemporaneous explanations available on the Internet as to why some schools adopted the paddle. The following relates to the choice of a rubber hose as the implement of choice in Chicago. (found by American Way).

A “humane” punishment is ???
_____________________________________

The Plymouth Tribune (Indiana) 30 September 1909, page 5, column 7.
RUBBER HOSE IN SCHOOLS
UNRULY BOYS FEAR DARK SPOTS AND COLD WATER. The Hickory Switch, Shingle and Ruler Displaced by New Punishment.

The personnel of the board which passed upon the propriety of the hose as a flagellator before the case went to the grand jury, is significant in itself. It consists of Benjamin Carpenter, Judge Richard S. Tuthill, T. D. Hurley, and Stanley Feld of Chicago; Henry Davis of Springfield; Mayor William J. Conzelman of Pekin ; and Mrs. Ella M. Rainey, wife of Congressman Rainey, all parents who realize the need of corporal punishment from personal experience.

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 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 Paddle is not everyone’s first choice as an instrument of correction (torture).

The Fairmont West Virginian November 4, 1904

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?

Hickory switches in particular, and switches in general, seem to have featured greatly in the early days in schools in the USA. Such devices were undoubtedly capable of inflicting severe and conspicuous welts, especially if freshly cut, green and filled with sap. It is not surprising there was a shift to non-cutting rubber hoses and paddles.

Note the following (found by AW):
Two-foot length of non-cutting hollow rubber hose favoured in Honesdale high school PA in 1911

The paddle or at least barrel staves were known in the north but did not become popular in schools there:
Informal use of barrel staves and slats, Seton Hall, New Jersey in 1914

William J Shearer A.M., PhD advice to parents on the punishment of children. (1903)
“Punishment should always be upon the fleshy parts of the body with a switch, strap, piece of small rubber hose or similar instrument which cannot inflict such injury as the parent may regret for years to come.”

But the paddle is not completely safe:
Trying to escape from a paddling causes serious injury (Kentucky, 1919)

It is clear from the above, and a vast body of other material, that school CP is not acceptable if it is not accepted by students, parents and the wider community as a useful and reasonable practice.

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”);”>Some readers may not have the patience to master the rather clunky interface of the archived newspaper report in the final link of KK‘s July 2 2017, 10:16 PM contribution above.

It is difficult to see how even an inexperienced paddler could strike a boy conventionally positioned for paddling on the head and knock out two teeth, whether the boy attempted escape from punishment or not. It therefore seems likely to me that, as suggested in the newspaper report, the injuries sustained by the boy were not due to the use of a paddle as the punitive implement per se but rather to either:

• The boy’s carelessness in falling down the stairs when attempting to flee from the paddling.</li>

Or:

• The carelessness of the school principal in positioning the boy at or close to the top of a flight of stairs when administering the punishment.</li>

It would be interesting to know the outcome of the ‘Breach of the Peace’ warrant raised against Prof. W T Berry, the school principal involved, at the request of the boy’s father. Over to our expert researcher into old US newspapers, American Way. </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?

A_L The principal was exonerated.

The Public Ledger. (Maysville, Ky.) September 16, 1919

CLICK

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?

<div style=”width:100%;background-image:url(“/realm/A_L_123/A_L_trg.gif”);”>Hello American Way,

What an amazing service! Thank you very much indeed!

The paddle involved was clearly exonerated by implication.

It is not explicitly stated that Professor Berry, the school Principal, was actually carrying the paddle when he encountered young Stanley Nicholson in the rest room seeking refuge from the ignominy of having to sit in the front row of Miss Gray’s class. However it was anyway immaterial. The boy clearly thought that he was going to be beaten and the outcome would doubtless have been exactly the same whether he believed the punishment would be administered with a paddle, a birch, a rattan, a switch, a length of rubber pipe, or indeed any other painful punitive implement. He would still have foolishly fled the scene and carelessly fallen down the stairs.

I fully agree with my very greatly esteemed fellow contributor KK that the paddle as utilised as a punishment in the US is not completely safe. However I have to disagree with him that this lack of safety is in any way demonstrated by the case of young Stanley Nicholson and his lost tooth and bumped head as appears to be suggested in KK‘s July 2 2017, 10:16 PM contribution above.</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?

EAL – Proximate and ultimate causation.

If “A” causes “B”, which in combination with C”, causes “X”, which in turn causes “Y” and then “Y”, what is the cause of “Y”?

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,

Far too complicated for me. I am but a simple computer person.</div>