Nuns used to beat students?!

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Carmelite1983

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My dad and his siblings went to Catholic school, and they have told me often about stories of nuns beating kids who got out of line.
Did this really happen? How?
My dad told me he once was asked to remove his shoe and hand it over to a sister so she could beat him with it in the hall.
I know it was probably common to get a ruler slapped across your wrist, but from what I hear from my dad, aunts, and uncles, I’m genuinely surprised they didn’t fall away from their faith after hearing what they went through!

To be clear, I’ve heard about some bad corporal punishment in public schools from regular teachers during this time period, but from nuns? Really?

I know my dad may have been kind of a wise cracker in school, but I can’t see him doing anything that would warrant such physical abuse…

Anyone else have any memories like this?

Is this something that a grown-up might claim later as physical abuse from when they were a child and expect compensation? Probably not, but it doesn’t make the Church look good.
 
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I didn’t go to a Catholic school but I was beaten with trainers (sneakers) often and caned. Even when I was six I was hit over the knuckles with a ruler by my female teacher. Corporal punishment was very common and all our teachers had canes. That was in the fifties and sixties in the UK.
 
Yeah, corporal punishment was widely used 50-60 years ago in both public schools and Catholic schools alike. It was accepted by society and taken for granted.
 
Corporeal Punishment was for most of history seen as a perfectly appropriate means of discipline.
 
My knuckles still ache from when Sister Mary Leo would whack them with a pretty stout stick. I was five years old in 1st grade. Now I look back and thank God for her. 😇
 
Hmmm, went to Catholic grade school in the 60’s and a Jesuit High School in the early 70’s.
Tough nuns in the former who were absolutely superb role models - very, very tough Jesuit’s priests in the latter who left lasting impressions of piety and social- mindedness.

Never saw any physical abuse - Deep South moral rectitude. Loved every minute of it.
 
Not only hit, but, would humiliate students. Eg, I was caught spitting a piece of paper from my mouth in fourth grade. The nun said that, since I like spitting so much, I could spend the remainder of the class time spitting out the window. She placed me at an open window at the front of the class and I had to spit for all to see. Fun days!
 
In sixth grade, Sr. Pauline utilized what we called “the Pauline knuckler.” She would go behind unsuspecting students (usually boys) and, with her middle finger clutched in a way that made her knuckle protrude out, wack the kid in the back of the head. Hurt!
 
O yes, the humiliation also. My heart goes out to the poor kids that stuttered.
 
I seem to remember
Proverbs 13:24 spare the rod and spoil the child
This was oft repeated thoughout my childhood, mainly when I was told I was spoilt for not being denied more often.

I also seem to remember being told that any harshness was character building. Something I think the Spartans also told their male offspring. Interestingly I think the Greeks used to have a joke that Spartans would willingly give their lives in battle because they lived on a diet of pigs blood.

All in the past now for most of us, I hope.
 
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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one sister-Sr. Gabriel-from first grade. She was an absolute angel to me. I will never forget her sweet kindness and comfort when I had a bad experience in class.
 
The principal at my elementary school would whip kids with his belt. The alternative was to have him call your parents so that they would come do it for him. I never got it, though, but I did see a couple kids get it. One came out clearly trying to hold back tears. The other probably dehydrated himself.

This was at an Assembly of God school. No nuns were involved.
 
i went to convent school, when we got out of line, we would get the ruler on our legs…it wasn’t a beating black and blue.
corporal punishment in schools was allowed back then.
 
I remember lots of kids being hit on the hands with a yard stick. I remember having to put a homework assignment on your desk in front of you and for what ever questions you did not do, you got wacked on the hand. If you left 5 questions, 5 wacks. If you left 15 it was 15 wacks. If you finished your assignment you were ok. This was public school.

My husband was in school on the military base where his dad served. If a kid warranted a strapping by the principal it was broadcast to all the classes. You would hear the wack wack wack and the crying over the intercom.

I hate hearing how the ‘nuns were awful in the Catholic school I went to’ when it was common to have corporal punishment in public schools and at home.
 
PennyinCanada said:
I hate hearing how the ‘nuns were awful in the Catholic school I went to’ when it was common to have corporal punishment in public schools and at home.
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I agree, I guess it just surprises me that a sister who has been called to a life of holiness would go to such measures.
But hey, different time ya know!
 
When my mother (obviously not a nun) taught in Catholic school she was told at her first one to hit the kids. In her case, she quickly ceased the practice.
 
PennyinCanada said:
You would hear the wack wack wack and the crying over the intercom.
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On the second morning assembly when I first went to secondary school at eleven three lads were matched on stage and caned in front of the whole school. They’d been caught smoking the term before the summer holidays!

Not only was I totally shocked at this anachronistic public execution but I was scared by the violence of it and couldn’t look. These boys had lived their whole summer holidays with the nagging thought of having a public caning when they returned to school in September.

There was another effect of all this adult violence too, violent bullying was rife! And even overlooked by the teachers to a great extent. Who knows how all that altered the behaviour of these young souls and eventually their own adult lives. I shudder to think.
 
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Very different times, thanks be to God!

I cannot even imagine teachers or principals hitting the children. Many probably thought they were just doing what was best for helping to develop proper character. There were probably a few, however, who were just violently taking out their own life frustrations on innocent children.

My dad, who went to Catholic primary school in the 1930s and 40s, told us about one nun who never hit the children. Instead, if a child did something wrong, Sister would put out her own hand, give a ruler to the child, and then tell the child to hit her own hand.

My dad was a “handful” as a child, and he said he was terrified of doing anything wrong – he was sure that hitting a nun would send him straight to hell.

Thanks be to God that all this has changed!
 
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