Nuns used to beat students?!

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Gertabelle said:
Sister would put out her own hand, give a ruler to the child, and then tell the child to hit her own hand.
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So if they loved her, or even liked her, the children wouldn’t want to hurt her and so behave better. That’s very sweet, how caring of that Sister.
 
Lee1 said:
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Gertabelle:
Sister would put out her own hand, give a ruler to the child, and then tell the child to hit her own hand.
Click to expand...
So if they loved her, or even liked her, the children wouldn’t want to hurt her and so behave better. That’s very sweet, how caring of that Sister.
Click to expand...
I can think of several students I currently have who would misbehave at every opportunity for the chance to hit me with a ruler! 😂
 
I went to a public school and corporal punishment was used. It included paddling on the buttocks, getting rapped on the knuckles, and at times getting an ear yanked, having your hair pulled, or head knuckled.
 
Mom told stories of how, in the 1940s, a certain nun would take an unruly student into the cloak room and knock him about for several moments. So traumatic the experience that she could not watch Mother Angelica on EWTN.
Dress codes were strictly enforced too. Mom also mentioned that in high school she once had to remove a shoe to show that she indeed was wearing nylons.

Generally, in the 1960s, we would usually have to stay after school and help empty the waste baskets if we got out of line.
 
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Yes! I forgot the hair thing! With short hair styles at the time I’d sometimes get the top of my sideburn pulled, very painful. These people were dedicated! The knuckle on the head thing I also remember experiencing in rugby scrums. But as I said, I didn’t go to a Catholic school.
 
I’ve witnessed a boy slapped multiple times.

I’ve heard other stories, but not witnessed.
 
The world was different then…I got a paddle whack, not hard, for going into the boys bathroom to see the million of ants that the boys were talking about that were in there. This was in kindergarten.

We were taught to know our place, 🙂 and not disobey.
 
Beating wouldn’t be the word in my experience. Yes the ruler, sometimes a paddle and one nun was fond of using your head to tap out morse code on the chalk board but the worst was …‘I am very disappointed in you. I really did not expect that type of behavior from you’…oh sheesh whack me already will ya sister!

I had no problem with any of it. They were great teachers. Now the brothers on the other hand…they went a little overboard sometimes.
 
When I was in the 5th grade we had the most feared teacher in the school. Her first name was Helma and was from Germany originally. At that time she had been teaching there for around 45 years (This was around 1958 btw).

One day I got to goofing off and hear a loud cracking sound. She had removed her paddle from her desk and slapped it on her desk top. She made me stand up and held that paddle up and told me “Milt this paddle knows your papa.”

That evening at supper I asked dad if he had her as a teacher and he said yes. I then asked him if she ever paddle him, and he said yes. He also added that it hurt too.
I never goofed off in her class again.
 
In the 80-81 school year I taught public high school. Two boys stole a piece of shop equipment and I caught them. After discussion with the principal, we offered them a choice of 24 hours detention at hard labor, or they could substitute half the detention time with swats, admistered by the principal. They chose to take four seats. The principal had a large swat board that he used. They had tears in their eyes, but never misbehaved again.
 
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