Understand that until comparatively recently, many teachers were among the most educated and intelligent people in our society. They often had MAs in an era when only a tiny proportion of the population had any sort of higher education, or they had become pupil teachers in a time when that was the only option available to many highly intelligent people with no real money behind them, could get a chance of some sort of decent and respected profession. It was an environment where educational academics were rare – and where pedagogy was driven by teachers who developed their own knowledge, understandings, and shared them with other. Later, when researchers came along who studied this formally had done their work, in 99% of cases they simply confirmed what teachers had already worked out.
Corporal Punishment & The Gender Disadvantage51
