Tags
Childhood, Corporal Punishment, Discipline, Memories, Punishment, School, School Days, Spanking, Tough
I don’t know what he had done this time, but little Scotty McNameRedacted was always in trouble. He really didn’t get along with any of his teachers. At this particular moment, it was a long-term substitute for our first grade teacher that had lost all patience for Scotty. Why, I didn’t know, but this time, she got the paddle out. And there in front of all of us, she bent Scotty over her knee and began to paddle him.
Scotty made no sound as the paddle struck. In fact, he barely flinched. I remember looking up at the face of the substitute, and watched as an expression of frustration crossed her face. Seeing no signs that her punishment had made an impression, she began to put some real muscle into it. I realized with some degree of horror that she was actually striking Scotty as hard as she possibly could, straining to hit him hard enough to teach him a lesson, so to speak.
…and she got nothing.
If I had looked forward to seeing someone I took to be our class bully get a comeuppance, that feeling was now completely gone. I was shocked to see just how hard the substitute was beating him, and more so to see just how little impact the spankings seemed to have on him. I reckon Scotty had taken more spankings than the rest of us put together, so I might have expected him to handle it better than I could. Still! This was a level of courage I could not have imagined.
And just like that the spanking stopped. I wasn’t entirely sure why. Had the substitute reached some magic number of blows? Did she realize she had gone too far? Or had she simply given up? I couldn’t tell what led to her decision to stop. I just watched along with the rest of the class as Scotty got off of her lap.
Scotty walked back to his desk and sat down without a trace of a tear on his face, not even a wince as his butt hit the chair. He looked around at the rest of us, maybe a little embarrassed and perhaps a little confused, but he showed absolutely no signs of surrender, no regret, and no reform.
For her own part, the substitute appeared to be totally drained.
…and utterly beaten.
I’ve heard a lot of things about corporal punishment as a means of dealing with children. Having no children, myself, I don’t have any real commitments on the matter one way or another, but whenever the topic arises, I cannot help but think of this memory.
Scotty may have taken the hits on that day, but there has never been any doubt in my mind.
On that day, at least.
Scotty won.
northierthanthou 
I’m thinking there’s a good chance that Scotty was already an abused kid. That he was a bully because he was taking his trauma out on the other kids. Having no power over his life at home, he compensated by taking power at school. If that’s true, what the teacher did was probably far less severe than what he faced at home.
And as a parent, I wish there had been someone there to stop the teacher. Our kids learn far more from what we do than what we say. And that teacher was showing the kids that it’s OK to get what you want by force, and for stronger people to hurt weaker ones. Not the lessons that any school should be teaching.
Thank you, Ubi. I am inclined to agree with you on all points here. I’ve seen it a couple times in my life; kids who have already faced far worse than any punishment a responsible and decent adult could deal out.
A good story, but troubling. Was this in a public school, Daniel? I think this was already outside the rules in IL when I was a kid.
It was in a public school. In the mid 70s. This was in a very small and very conservative town in Colorado. I recall seeing a couple other spankings while there, not many, and none where the blow was much more than a ritual. It was the first time I recall seeing an adult really lay into a child. Yes, it was disturbing.
I wrote a blog on it once and what I found researching it was that corporal punishment doesn’t it. It makes kids mean and also make them risk takers. This story makes a lot of sense.
I meant doesn’t work in stopping bad behavior.
Happy Thanksgiving Daniel and the lovely bride! Enjoy!