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?

American Way, I read your message without noticing the message title. The title made your intent clear.

Following up cited items has proved useful. This is how I found the Oregonian article. It was cited in a recently published book and also in the newspaper article you hyperlinked above. Newspapers often seem to lift bits from other papers with minimal acknowledgement.

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?

See also the October 24, 2010 posting above with the above hyperlink correction:

The Making of America library

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 1931, school principal Mrs Annie (or Anne?) L Curtiss appealed unsuccessfully against conviction and a decision not to grant her a new trial after being convicted in Glendale (CA) police court. This precedent-setting court case confirmed that teachers could legally use CP but that any punishment must be justified and of appropriate severity.

The case is recorded here:

People v. Curtiss (1931) Vol. 116 California Appellate [Court] Reports Supplement 771, 775 [§273a].

Also: The Pacific Reporter, vol 330 page 802

That magistrate saw paddle used by teacher and copy of doctor’s report before … Annie L. Curtiss was convicted of an offense, and from the judgment and an ….

________________________________________

That case was reported in the California Teachers Association Journal as follows:

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=znoVAAAAIAAJ

CTA journal: Volume 27, page 45
California Teachers Association – 1931

Sierra Educational News

Excerpts

[…] teacher [principal Annie L Curtiss] who was charged with a violation of [the California] Penal Code section 273a by reason of having “wilfully, wrongly and unlawfully” inflicted unjustifiable physical pain and suffering on a boy pupil of seven years of age. The section itself provides that any one who “wilfully … inflicts thereon (on any child) unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering … is guilty of a misdemeanor”.

From the facts of the case it appears that the pupil [Louis H Cortese] had gotton into a fight with another pupil [Harry Waldron] and the defendant, the teacher, punished him corporally. The punishment consisted of laying the child on his stomach on a table and spanking him with a wooden paddle [club?] about 19 inches long, three inches wide and half inch thick. The boy’s brother who was witness to the whipping, stated that the defendant gave the boy thirty or more strokes with the paddle. The defendant who whipped the boy in the presence of two other teachers asserted that she hit the boy only five or seven times. The night following the whipping the testimony showed […]

[…] the boy to have welts and bruises on his body although other testimony showed that the welts and discolorations might have been caused by other happenings.

The court, after giving weight and consideration to all the testimony, held that while a teacher (who stands in loco parentis) may inflict reasonable (or moderate) corporal punishment upon a child, the burden of proof is on the teacher to show that the punishment inflicted was reasonable and that in the instant case the teacher had not shown that the punishment inflicted was just, reasonable and merited.<i>
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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?

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=iSAD … &q&f=false

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY (New York)
Vol XXXV FEBRUARY, 1889. page 572

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Children’s Punishments. – Something can be said in favor of most of the forms of correction – the rod, strap, tasks, confinement, restriction to plain food, and many others – which have been more or less employed in the school and the family. But there is one which on no account should be employed. Boxing or pulling the ears, or, indeed, striking any part of the head, is most injudicious. Not every form of corporal punishment is so objectionable, but in applying it judgment should be employed. Thus, if a chastisement suitable for a robust child is given to a nervous or feeble one, it will be doubly felt, and will be out of proportion to the offense. Moral means of correction may be the most suitable for sensitive children, and, in the case of school tasks, may possess a certain educational value. There is, however, an important objection to such as imply confinement indoors, especially in cases where the culprit is some poorly nourished youngster to whom fresh air is a luxury, or in any case where the punishment is frequently repeated.

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 have found few early (before 1900) discussions of the merits or otherwise of the paddle for school discipline. Either no such discussions have been documented or these documents have not yet made it onto the internet. The coverage of US newspapers is uneven and many are behind pay walls that make research too expensive. Digitization of government documents is continuing but seems slow in the USA. (Or, perhaps, I am incompetent.)

I have switched attention to mentions of implements other than paddles. If specific implements but not the paddle are mentioned this implies the paddle was not used.

Source: http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=cY8Z … J&pg=PA639
Documents of the … Legislature of the State of New Jersey School reports, 1870
PATERSON.

William Nelson, Superintendent.

Excerpt from page 639

The average attendance in our public schools is now nearly 4,000. The city census taken by the assessors in June, show a total of 7,955 persons, between five and eighteen years of age. (Why not have this census taken by the assessors throughout the State, in June, and have the limits of ages 5 and 16?) There are about 800 attending private and sectarian schools, partly because there really is not room for them in the public schools. Most of the other 3,200 children and youth are at work. In the silk mills there must be 2,000 girls, some as young as eight years, while in the cotton and other mills there are many hundred boys and girls employed. About 300 of these attend the evening schools, which are open from October to March or April. The other 2,900 are scarcely ever in our schools, except when work is slack in the mills. Does not this call for legislative interference! A law requiring all children and youth under eighteen to attend school three or four months in the year, as in some of the New England States; or, better still, compelling all children employed in the mills (and others too, for that matter), say between five and twelve years of age, to attend schools regularly three hours a day, leaving them free to work the rest of the time, would prevent a great impending increase of ignorance, and would make better citizens and better mechanics. At present two-thirds of the children leave school when but ten or eleven years old, and before passing through the primary grade. And here are 2,000 or 3,000 mere children growing up to be men and women with only the faintest smattering of reading, writing, arithmetic, to say nothing of geography and grammar. During the last few months there has been an important improvement in the regularity and punctuality of pupils attendance, owing to a vigorous enforcement of stringent rules relating thereto, and the offering of certificates of merit, etc. We still retain corporal punishment. A pupil may be strapped on the open hand, for persistent and wilful insubordination, but only by a principal, who keeps a record thereof. The use of the strap is discouraged and is more and more seldom resorted to.

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?

It is likely that immigrants to the USA brought their cultural heritage, customs and laws with them, and these then changed slowly in the “melting pot”. The paddle was apparently not known in NYC schools in the early days (or subsequently).

http://books.google.com/books?id=gqoAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78
History of the Public School Society of the City of New York By William Oland Bourne

CHAPTER IV. HISTORY FROM 1822 TO 1826.

Excerpt Page 78

At the meeting of the board held on the 10th of January, 1823, a resolution was adopted, ordering corporal punishment in the schools to be discontinued, prohibiting entirely the use of the rattan, and permitting only the use of a leather strap in extreme cases – the strap to be applied only to the hand of the refractory scholar. This was a step in a reform which became, at a later period, a marked feature in the administration of the schools.