I sometimes work as a docent in the Kibler School, a one-room school museum located in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Occasionally when I show the two paddles we have in the school, a visitor, usually older, will say, “Those were the good old days when teachers were allowed to punish kids.”
I was a student in one-room schools when teachers were allowed to paddle kids. “Paddle” doesn’t sound so bad compared to say, whipping or beating, but it could be traumatic. I saw a teacher take a kid’s head, bend the kid over, and bang his head on the floor. I saw a girl so scared at the blackboard that she urinated, the urine forming a pool at her feet as the entire class sat there, stunned and silent. I saw my sister complain of frequent “tummy aches,” trying to get out of school because she was afraid her teacher would paddle her.
In August a Missouri school district announced that it was resuming the practice of corporal punishment in its schools. Nineteen states, mostly in the South, allow corporal punishment. Nearly 4,000 schools reported using corporal punishment during the 2017-18 school year. If an adult hit another adult with a wooden board, that would be assault. When an adult hits a kid in 19 states, that’s called discipline.
See Michael Levenson, “Paddling Makes a Comeback in Missouri,” New York Times (Aug. 29, 2022), p. A19.
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