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| If we want paddling to “bring back the good old days” three questions need to be asked: “What did paddling look like in the good old days?” “When exactly were the “good old days?” Finally we can wonder, “Does modern paddling truly mimic “good old days” paddling practices?” Ignoring for the moment the great harm that was often done to children “in the good old days” we will see that today’s paddling is, in many ways, much more dangerous and exploitive to children than it ever has been before. | | What follows are excerpts from an exchange I had with a man on an Internet site where the issue of paddling was being discussed. The main reason I wanted to print his letter, and our exchange, was his point that when he went to school years ago girls were not paddled, but boys commonly were. I have heard many similar “old time” stories where a teacher wanted to paddle an entire class, but only paddled the boys, and etc… We also have a news case where a British school caned only boys, until “women’s lib” came along, and, in 1980, they decided it would be ‘equal rights’ if they allowed a man to cane teen girls too. For myself I remember boys being paddled several times at the Michigan school I attended but never a girl. | | The “good old days” had a double standard where men would paddle boys but seldom, if ever, girls in many schools (although there were certainly exceptions I’m sure). The “women’s movement” in the late 70s brought about a rather perverse male backlash that found an outlet in paddling. Instead of following the old rules of modesty, or ending paddling for all genders as our scientific understanding was showing us even then would be better, men who wanted to "beat women back into place" fostered the lie that paddling was “gender neutral” all of a sudden. It didn’t matter, with the wave of a magic wand, if men paddled boys or girls, with the victims aged four right through adulthood at age 19. The sexual violation, that was obvious to the “good old days crowd,” could suddenly be ignored in the name of “women’s lib.” We could pretend the much greater sexual violation did not exist. This was also a part of an overall male attack on women’s lib at the time—kind of a cynical, “ok—you want women’s lib—lift this 100 pound sack of flour,” or in this case, “bend over for the man’s big hard paddle then.” | | Paddling is abusive and sexually charged with either gender, but especially so with female victims. The female buttocks shares, with the female breasts, the distinction of being more of a sexual area of the body than a male’s. This is especially true with teen female victims who are matched nearly 100% of the time with middle aged male paddlers and/or male witnesses. | | The letters that follow show one man’s opinion about how “in the good old days” women were not paddled, but boys commonly were. He thought that was a “great thing.” When I asked specifically about that point, however, he answered that he now thinks women should be paddled about as much as boys because they are “more bad” now than they were then. I went to school in the 60s and 70s like he did. I’ve raised my kids and taught part time in a school too. If anything today’s kids are better than kids were in my day. It is just how you deal with misbehaviors—with dignity and grace, or with brutality, humiliation, and sexual exploitation with men spanking teen girls? | | Anyway here is part of the exchange—and “Jack’s” very interesting observation of the much higher incidence of boys being paddled in his “good old days.” Note that Indiana Basketball coach Bobby Knight was much in the news at the time for being fired for, after repeated warnings, hitting, kicking, choking, or otherwise being abusive to his college athletes. | [From “Jack”]
I have been reading the thread on paddling and am an advocate for corporal punishment because I think it is almost certain to achieve results. I went to school in Indiana and they done a lot of paddling at my high school but only boys were paddled. It seemed for the most part the girls at the time were pretty well behaved without the need of being paddled. That was more than 25 years ago. I don't think paddling occurs too often in Indiana high schools anymore and we see what this has caused, total disrespect for authority and adults. Just this weekend Indiana University Coach Bob Knight was fired because he was not shown respect by a young man who said, “Hey Knight, what's up.” Back when I was in school if you said something like that to a teacher you would probably get swats but then by the time you went to university you would know to respect your elders.
I am curious to hear from people who went to a paddling school, and from those who were paddled. Do you think it had any negative effects on you, or do you think being paddled made you a better more responsible adult? In my case I can't think of anything but good that came out of me being paddled a couple of times in school. I think not only our schools but our country started down a road of decline when paddling in schools was outlawed by a bunch of liberals.
--“Jack” |
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