“Boys and girls, since we don’t want Billy to miss the rest of our story, I think we’ll pause here. I want you all to take out your Bible coloring books and draw quietly at your desks until I say otherwise.”
Even though the door to Mrs Wiseman’s office was closed, one could hear bits and pieces of normal conversation. After a brief interrogation, the naughty child was required to confess his or her misdeed. While the confession was often impossible to hear, the preliminary interrogation and the scolding which followed were quite audible. So was the distinct sound which followed of a hand spanking a bottom.
I usually noted the exact moment when the child began crying, the different ways each child cried, and the way their crying changed at various stages. Many of the younger ones began whimpering or crying from the moment they were told to “see Mrs Wiseman”. In hindsight, I think she liked to keep a naughty child waiting outside her office door in full view of the rest of us to add a little humiliation to the punishment. While most of the were able to hold back tears until inside her office, one often heard soft crying during the interrogation and scolding. Even that depended on the severity of the offense and the child’s sense of what to expect. Anyone caught doing something really bad knew they would be spanked harder. When this happened, even some of the older ones started crying audibly as soon as they entered her office.