The earliest mention of the school paddle in the USA 82

KKxyz

3,59957

Apr 04, 2019#811

The Paddle Known to High School Football Players in 1912

Ashland Tidings. (Ashland, Oregon.), 31 Oct. 1912.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn … d-1/seq-5/

ASHLAND HIGH SCHOOL  [Established 1890]
Personal Notes That Tell of Activities in the Realm of the Three R’s.

[. . .]

The high school football boys gave Coach Butterfield a good start-off on his trip to be married. Scenting trouble, Mr. Butterfield had planned to take the motor, but the boys were wise to him and about 30 got excused from school and caught him just as he was making a run for his office. He was then carried down to Lane’s, where he was glad to treat. In the meantime some of the boys unpacked his grip and substituted old shoes and rice for his wedding garments, a loss which he has probably discovered. He was then escorted to the motor, where he was compelled to give a speech from the steps, only consenting through fear of the school paddle. Rice and shoes decorated the car when it left the station.

[. . . ]

Apr 04, 2019#812

Effective leaders, their ideas and practices travel together

The return of the school paddle to Washington DC in 1911

Competent and popular leaders hold great sway. When the move from job to job their ideas and practices, good and bad, travel with them. One such leader came to Washington DC in 1911.

Dr. William M. Davidson was born in Pennsylvania, born in 1863. His youth was spent in Kansas. He graduated from the Kansas State Teachers Normal School. He filled the position of principal in a number of cities in Kansas and served as superintendent of Topeka, Kansas, schools for twelve years.

He was superintendent of the Omaha, Nebraska schools from 1904 to 1911. He was an active, popular and reforming superintendent of the Washington, D.C, schools for 4 years.

He then transferred to Pittsburgh PA as the fourth superintendent of the city’s public schools. He served until his death in June 1930, aged 67.

Washington-L.gif (81.16KiB)

Apr 08, 2019#813

Barrel staves would have been near ubiquitous in 1906.
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Apr 08, 2019#814

First day of school September 18, 1911.  Doctor Davidson orders for the ensuing high school year.  Girls needed to learn to cater to the boys’ appetites under his new regime. On the plus side for the girls their delicate bottoms appeared to have been exempted from spanking.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn … 12%2C2560/

The good doctor brought his experience from Omaha Nebraska to the nation’s Capitol where there were 2,000 teachers.  A_L would misbehave to be on the receiving end from that young lady.  We all know you too well.

A_L could you please consider posting her picture?  Those pointers can be used as canes.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn … 34%2C3623/

KKxyz

3,59957

Apr 13, 2019#815

Peak Paddling can be defined in various ways:

  1. The school year in which the greatest number of paddlings were administered in US schools.
  2. The school year in which the greatest number of pops / lick / swats  were administered in US schools.
  3. The school year in which the greatest number of students were paddled in US schools.
  4. The school year in which the greatest proportion of students were paddled in US schools.

Compulsory school attendance came late in the pro-paddling South so the number of children in school and at possible risk of being paddled was likely small until well into the 20th century.

There were likely big differences between different states and the different school districts within a particular state.

Apr 14, 2019#816

The key to reform was the paddle in Chicago of 1898 boy’s reformatory institutions.  Rarely more than four paddle swats did the trick even though some of these young rogues were deserving of ten as Renee had to remind one of her flummoxed colleagues that wanted to exceed the limit.

These “spankings” were quite brutal and spoken of as no worse than the administrators had from their own fathers.  Nothing that didn’t draw blood nor was done with too much eclat was considered better than a dark cell with bread and water.  What a canard?  These brutal monsters would say anything to silence their critics.

http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/hi … Page=false

KKxyz

3,59957

Apr 15, 2019#817

Peak Paddling – more

Although the school paddle was likely known and used before 1900 only a few pupils were at risk of receiving it. The population was small. Only a small proportion of children attended school in the states where the paddle later became popular.

Rural parents were often dependent on child labour for their economic survival so resisted compulsory school attendance. Even the notion of education was scary for some who did not want their children exposed to new ideas.

Peak paddling, however defined, likely occurred rather recently, perhaps in the 1960’s or 70s before modern and feminist ideas took hold. Copyright protection hampers free digital searches of written material from this time.

Apr 16, 2019#818

The clacken and Scottish paddling revisited

I have previously pondered whether the US school paddle might owe anything to Scotland. Did it come to the USA with the Ulster Scots?

viewtopic.php?f=198833&t=2749&p=44729

Hailes or clacken is a Scottish ball game which dates to the 18th century and achieved its widest popularity in the nineteenth. It has now virtually died out, replaced by football, except at The Edinburgh Academy, where an exhibition match is played annually. The game is similar to shinty but played with wooden bats known as clackens.  [. . . ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hailes_(ball_game)

Weir of Hermiston (1896) is an unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is markedly different from his previous works in style and has often been praised as a potential masterpiece. It was cut short by Stevenson’s sudden death in 1894 from a cerebral hemorrhage. The novel is set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

The novel tells the story of Archie Weir, a youth born into an upper-class Edinburgh family. He was paddled by his nanny as a child (as was the author at high school). Because of Archiie’s Romantic sensibilities and sensitivity, Archie is estranged from his father, who is depicted as the coarse and cruel judge of a criminal court. By mutual consent, Archie is banished from his family of origin and sent to live as the local laird on a family property in the vicinity of the Borders hamlet Hermiston.

While serving as the laird, Archie meets and falls in love with Kirstie (Christina). As the two are deepening their relationship, the book breaks off. Confusingly, there are two characters in the novel called Christina, the younger of whom is Archie’s sweetheart.   [. . . ]

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Apr 18, 2019#819

The relative availability of  leather and wood in the paddling-prone rural South

Pliable leather is a better material than rigid wood for making CP implements.  But, was wood favoured in the South because it, or suitable “blanks”,  were in better supply than suitable leather on small barely viable subsistence farms?

It might be assumed that leather would be ubiquitous in cattle country. However this does not recognize that the hides needed for tanning were likely to be far more available where the cattle are eaten rather than where they are raised.

It is likely little beef was eaten in isolated rural farming areas with low population densities as one beast supplied more meat than could easily be consumed by one family. Small family farms might keep a milking cow, chickens, pigs etc but perhaps not beef cattle. If they did kill a cattle beast they likely would need to send the hide away for tanning after drying and salting.

Leather: world production and international trade, by J.G. Schnitzer.
Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1935.
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.301121 … =%3Bseq=44

Leather was a very important material in earlier times before the advent of synthetic polymers. Leather  was used for making shoes for people, harnesses and saddles for horses, drive belts for machinery and much else besides. Only families with horses would be likely to have harness leather to hand. Sole leather might be available from the local cobbler.

Wood was a very important material in forested rural areas in pre-railway days far from sources of stone, slate, bricks, tiles and iron. Shingles were used to roof houses and shakes to sheath their walls. Barrels were used to store and transport liquids but also dry good that needed more protection than that afforded by sacks. Paddle of various designs were used to wash clothes, make butter and in lieu of china plates.

Tanneries.gif (29.65KiB)

hcj44

22823

Apr 18, 2019#820

KK, I had often wondered why the wooden paddle was the implement of choice, rather than a strap or belt, particularly in the Southern States.  The question then comes as to whether the choice was different in those areas where the tanneries were concentrated?  Straps were certainly used in Catholic schools, which are perhaps found most frequently in the East Coast areas.  Your map then tells another interesting story.

In England, the areas where the leather industry was concentrated, such as Walsall, were the ones where the strap was used rather than the cane.

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