Did you ever have corporal punishment dished out in shop class at school

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Like Bob i did not know what a scoring blade was in Bryans post so had to look it up. :D Anyhow in the process i got sidetracked to this site where there was a article by Dave Barry on his time in shop class at school and how "Mr.Schmidt" put Ronnies head in a vise to teach him not to use chisels as a screwdriver.

Its a good call back the past woodworking article and i had to smile it made me think back to my shop classes at school and i wondered if any of you experienced the same sort of things and what lessons it taught you.

In my case shop class (we called them metal working and woodworking) was taken for 5 years. The initial year was 50% metal working and 50% woodworking then you settled down to selecting one of the two ( i would have liked to do both but not possible) and finished that for 4 years.

Each year at the start we were supplied 10 round brass tags with a number on that was unique to the individual. When we removed a tool we were required to place a tag in its place whereever it was stored. At the end of the lesson we were required to return the tools to their correct place and retrieve our tags. If tag was still there at the end of the lesson and tool not returned he whose tag it was got to bend over and get caned. We called them cuts because thats what they did to the skin on your behind at times. One cut for each tag.

Damage a tool also got you a cut. Get up to mischief in the shop and you got several cuts.

Well no one got injured in my 5 years in shop class but we got loads of cuts. :D Kept us focused and behaving most of the time.:rofl:
The thing i learnt and retained was to always put a tool back where it was stored. :D Now if i can only learn to make proper storage that was already provided for back in the day.

We never had any acts like Mr Schmidt take place though. :huh:

We also learnt to put a wad of newspaper folded up in our pants but that was only possible if we were sent to the office for caning which typically only happened when we had a female teacher.

I cannot say i hold any resentment or ill thoughts towards my shop teachers for this practice but at the same time justice was not always dished out even handedly or fairly but then life aint always fair either.

Whats your experience in shop in this regard.


http://www.benchmark.20m.com/articles/HowToMakeaBoard/HowToMakeaBoard.html
 
We didn't have shop class, but I got my butt lit up more than once in school, and I better for it! As a matter of fact I just thanked my former elementary principal a few weeks ago for doing it.
 
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Don't think I ever took a beatin from something I did in shop classes. Took several for other offenses in school. I deserved everyone. If I thought I could get away with it, I tried it. If you got into a fight with another student, they let you finish, they you both got it from the principal. Times were good. Schools were well kept, clean, students didn't back talk, treated people with respect. (until they locked horns, with another student:D)
 
Never had corporal punishment in high school, but did have an altercation with another student in Carpentry class. Back in those days, I wore a 4" Buck folding hunter knife on my belt at all times. (Back when you could carry a knife at school and have hunting rifles on the gun rack in your truck in the school parking lot.) One of the lower-echelon jocks - I think he was the water boy for the football team or something - made it his hobby to mess with me and the only other longhair in the class. The other guy, Mark, was smaller than me, so he took the brunt of the harassment, but one day Water Boy started trying to take my knife out of the sheath while I was ripping a 24" long 2x4 on the tablesaw. I grabbed the board and wheeled around, promising to take his head off with it if he so much as touched me or my knife again.

That was the last straw for me and my friend, so we stormed off to the Vice Principle's office to lodge a complaint about Water Boy. (The shop teacher ignored the situation.) After we explained the whole history of harassment in the class, the VP rolled his eyes and said "Oh that Bruce...he's always cutting up. That's just how he is." In other words, the VP was no more help than the teacher. That was the last day Mark or I attended Carpentry class. ;) I later had another two semesters of shop class with the same shop teacher, and was one of his better students. He never did ask me why I disappeared from (and subsequently flunked) the Carpentry class, though. :rolleyes:
 
Shop teacher in jr high school gave you an option, 1 hour after school for bad behavior or 1 swat with a paddle per every 15 mins. most opted for the paddle but never went past 2 swats and ended up staying the last 30 mins:rofl: (always a hand shake and a laugh between the teacher and student at the end of it all:))
 
Never got the "board of education" myself. I was what you would call an instigator. I was the guy who always said "What you oughta do is...." If you you came up with something good there was always somebody goofy enough to try it. I think now-a-days they call that "leadership".
 
My school didn't have shop class only the FFA classes since ours was a farm community... I didn't take any of the FFA classes though... I made sure to never get into enough trouble in school to get any licks though... any licks at school would mean two for one when I got home from my father.... In all my years growing up I only got 5 lickings from dear ole dad, but I firmly remember each and every one.
 
Grades 1~8, all the teachers had paddles, belts, or switches of some kind - and they all used them mercilessly.

By high school, the beatings stopped - suspensions were the rule there.
 
I got whacked on the head quite a few times by teachers wielding rulers but nothing like a paddle or switch.

Other than that my school sounds a lot like Steves. Kids learned to stick up for themselves and handle their own problems. Parents were hardly ever involved but when they were they agreed with the teachers or principle and kicked butt when they got home. The first thing most parents do today is call their lawyer or the news media.
 
I think they stopped the paddling about 6th grade for us. Our HS Principal was once the PE coach. We'd have to stay after and run or do something to get it out of our system.

Our shop teacher, Mr. Chester, was probably one of the kindest souls ever. On several occasions though, my dad would stop and pick him up as he was walking about 18 miles home as some student had hidden his car keys (always left them on his desk). One morning I was getting off the bus, pulled out my binder and a set of keys fell out. Another student, John, ran over and grabbed them and ran off, I didn't know what to think or how they got there. John was a pretty big guy and somewhat of a bully. I later found that he had put them in my binder the day before as a joke. He felt bad about it and went and confessed, Mr. Chester simply asked him to not do it again and keep others from doing it too. Don't recall ever seeing him having to walk home again. Several kids started to do it and John would put them in their place.

Mr. Chester did have quite a voice and could stop someone in their tracks if they were about to do something stupid by a very brief and to the point command "Stop!"
 
Never took shop class, but teachers in Canada used a strap on the hands. I set a record for getting strapped in grade 6 (new teacher who didn't know a lot better) but never got it since. The principal in High School claimed to have one, but we never saw it. I was glad to see the end of corporal punishment in schools. We still turned out surly, rude kids in the 50s and 60s, as well as some fine ones. It's the same today, and I know a lot of fine kids.

The strap also set a bad tone for the schools. I remember an oral exercise in grade 7. We were supposed to fill in the blanks in the sentence, "the teacher ________ and __________ the students." The students couldn't get past 'slapped' and 'strapped'. I could see the teacher (who rarely used the strap) was getting a little uneasy, and he moved on to another sentence. Only years later did I realize he was looking for something like 'educated' 'taught' or 'enlightened.' Taking away the strap forced teachers to develop a better relationship with their students. After all, how would you respond if your foreman whacked you with a 2x4 every time you got out of line?
 
In grade school the nuns were very loving unless you disobeyed or disrespected them. I had friends get bloody noses and bruises. I was locked in a closet for most of a day once. :eek: All of us now admit we diserved it and learned from it. My class included me and 11 other guys, the nuns called us the 12 apostles. :D In high school the principal had his own "board of education" hanging on his wall, but was actually a very nice guy.
 
Our school principal had a "board of education" and used it. I think that his theory was get their attention and then talk to them. He could give you a swat and 5 minutes later you went in and wanted to talk to him, he would clear the desk and listen to what you had to say. I only got the board once, but that was enough. His name was Mr. House, but at informal events you could call him Barney. I guess at the time I didn't think about how fair and understanding he really was.
 
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