So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Hercule]

[deleted]

 

[ChiTownScion]

Ever see the movie "Heaven Help us?" It's supposed to be a "comedy drama" but there is one scene where the tables turn during a corporal punishment administered by a brother/ teacher and the kids get the upper hand and fight back.

I was watching with my wife and one son and I suppose that PTSD kicked in as I hollered at the kids to pulverize the religious brother ("KILL the M***** F****** ba***rd!!") My son turned to me and said, "Whoa! Dad! Chill! It's just a MOVIE!!"

For me, the corporal punishment from a priest threat didn't occur in high school but in a men & boys' choir located in the city (9th & Wabash). Very different from my suburban world. We had somewhat of a national reputation so I suppose our music was of a higher quality. "The discipline will do you good!" my mom would lecture. Hogwash! It taught me to hate the abuse of authority by bullies.

That priest/ choir director ended up as a lonely old man, wondering why so many of "his boys" never came to visit. To those of us who lived through it, there was no wonder in the equation whatsoever.

 

[MisterCairo]

To her dying day, my mum recalled the "American Indian" teacher at her school in Paisley, Scotland, strapping her palms-up hands at her desk twice, before my mum refused the promised third strike, being sent to the headmaster. My gran was called in, and told the staff in words of one syllable what they could do with the third strike. This was not a helicopter mother. And this was about 1943.

My mum's misdemeanour? Holding her book "too open", i.e., bending the spine beyond 180 degrees.

 

[tonyb]

I’ll forever remember a dinner party a good 25 years or more ago at the home of my brother’s mother-in-law, a weekly event with a cast of regular attendees (relatives, mostly, some of the shirt-tail variety, such as myself) and the occasional guests from outside that circle.

On this particular occasion the outside guest was a retired schoolteacher who had worked with the hostess and her long-ago divorced husband some decades earlier. This fellow had written a highly prescriptive grammar and punctuation guide, which made him something of a minor celebrity in his small world.

It was only my being a guest in another person’s home that spared that fellow a serious thumping. He was a believer in and a promoter of corporal punishments in the schools and told me that my objections were “dramatic.” The kids were “monkeys,” he said. I was sorely tempted to show him what my getting truly “dramatic” looked like.

It was apparent that he had grown accustomed to people deferring to him. It’s an occupational hazard among cops and schoolteachers and others in positions of authority. It’s beyond annoying.

He’s been dead a decade or longer. My only regret on learning of his demise was knowing that I had lost forever the pleasure of killing the worthless POS myself.

 

[Harp]

there is one scene where the tables turn during a corporal punishment administered by a brother/ teacher and the kids get the upper hand and fight back.

I was watching with my wife and one son and I suppose that PTSD kicked in as I hollered at the kids to pulverize the religious brother ("KILL the M***** F****** ba***rd!!") My son turned to me and said, "Whoa! Dad! Chill! It's just a MOVIE!!".

Ten years after Rice and my return to Chicago, I learned from a reliable source that a classmate challenged
one of the Christian Brothers staff to a meeting in the woods bordering campus, the offer made privately
but was witnessed by the dean of discipline and another adult male, a lay math instructor.
Apparently bad blood had spilled and my classmate, a Kenpo Karate black belt had had enough.
All cards put down face up, and the call was received by the dean who put the matter squarely with
this particular brother to either accept or decline. Said meeting declined, but the story made its way up
to the hierarchy at the Archdiocese and the order's Superior General. Some awakening occurred that
it was time to review certain forms of behavior previously allowed faculty.

 

[GHT]

It was apparent that he had grown accustomed to people deferring to him. It’s an occupational hazard among cops and schoolteachers and others in positions of authority. It’s beyond annoying.

Big frog, small puddle syndrome. Only the big frog isn't so big especially as in Harp's post, one of the smaller frogs calls out the big one. Not so big then.

 

[Harp]

Several nephews later attended Rice, flourished scholar jocks, and went on to college with great
memories of the school. Corporal punishment receded into legend of the more prominent practitioners
long gone since retired.
-----
Saturday morning after a long nite watching basketball, sipping coffee, still need to handicap hosses
for la derb n oaks, others. Gonna let the game come to me. But some days ya got it, some days ya don't.

 

[Harp]

A second cup of coffee awakens some thoughts. I have been considering extension distance programs
centering around law yet my mind whispers the majesty of Shakespeare beckons further explore.
Maturity opens as many doors as it does close, and, with time I am ever more fascinated by the Bard
and his mind, beautiful words, and deepest truths. ( I also have need to immerse myself with Burke
for similar reason.) Have you ever read such fabulous prose????

Amazing what thoughts come to the fore after a night of basketball madness.
...and the track lookin like it ain't even gonna happen wowaysz.

 

[Hercule]

While all these power trip, revenge, standing up to authority in school stories are fun to hear, one must not lose sight as to just how difficult classroom teaching can be, especially in certain (usually urban) settings. (Though, seemingly everywhere anymore) My room mate when I first moved back to Cleveland (a friend from college) taught middle school in one of the more upscale urban suburbs. All was well for many years until the principal was replaced by a "more progressive" administrator who repeatedly, and quite publicly, undermined my friend's authority, both in the classroom and in hallway dealings with students. That sent him into a serious mental tail spin and on several occasions he went into work only to turn right around and go to the emergency room. One thing led to another and so began the long slow road of suicide by alcohol. He died last May. He was 56.

I experienced the same thing myself on the college level. I taught 3 semesters as a sabbatical replacement (I was already on staff) and the head of the department, who was also interim director of the division at the time, made me his project for the second semester. When students complained that I was making them responsible for the material, and half of the class failed the first test (only 4 of the 5 tests counted toward the final grade anyway) he sided with them saying that "the pressure was on for the remaining tests", and he very visibly monitored my teaching. Even after the fact he harassed me with articles and books about effective teaching methods. I never taught in the department again, for which I thank my lucky stars. I have nothing but contempt for 90% of the college students I encounter. They're nothing but whiney snowflakes who take no responsibility for themselves and want everything given to them. I like to think that I have a lot to offer and I try to be very generous in sharing my knowledge and experience. But no more. Thankfully I now work behind a closed door and have virtually no contact with students.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I was always a pushover with evaluating my undergrad profs. One was not a particularly skilled teacher or expert in his field, but I gave him a glowing evaluation. He had five kids, was a good hearted and charitable individual, and telling the truth could have done harm to someone who really didn't deserve it.

 

[GHT]

I was always a pushover with evaluating my undergrad profs. One was not a particularly skilled teacher or expert in his field, but I gave him a glowing evaluation. He had five kids, was a good hearted and charitable individual, and telling the truth could have done harm to someone who really didn't deserve it.

There speaks the voice of experience, most probably gained from hours of courtroom attendance.

 

[GHT]

A second cup of coffee awakens some thoughts. I have been considering extension distance programs
centering around law yet my mind whispers the majesty of Shakespeare beckons further explore.

Dip into The Sonnets. 116 is The Wedding Ceremony Sonnet and Sonnet 29: Love Conquers All. I won't tell you anymore, your's to explore and enjoy.

 

[Hercule]

Dip into The Sonnets. 116 is The Wedding Ceremony Sonnet and Sonnet 29: Love Conquers All. I won't tell you anymore, your's to explore and enjoy.

Your mention of the Sonnets brings back fond memories of the summer I spent as a musician at the Utah Shakespeare festival in Cedar City Utah. Born and raised in New England, it was quite a wonderful change of scenery for me and I thoroughly enjoyed being out there (that it took a week for a first class letter from home, not so much.) Anyway, we provided the live music for afternoon teas a couple of times a week. We'd play the music and actors would do a queen Elizabeth and Essex bit complete with readings of the sonnets and what not. Our Essex that year was a young Benjamin Bratt. He also played Richmond in Richard III that year. Ah, the fond memories, well, except for that one night he and and others from the company kept me awake playing poker all night in my apartment.

 

[tonyb]

Don’t mistake my disdain for people who strike kids for a lack of appreciation for the teachers in the game for the right reasons. But then, I appreciate any person who cares enough about what s/he does for others, from hotel maids to brain surgeons, to be good at it.

For every anecdote of a good teacher done wrong by “the system” is at least another one of a bad teacher remaining in the classroom thanks to “the system.”

 

[Harp]

Dip into The Sonnets. 116 is The Wedding Ceremony Sonnet and Sonnet 29: Love Conquers All. I won't tell you anymore, your's to explore and enjoy.

Yes, Bard struck long ago and ever since I have been enraptured and continually smitten by his intellect,
heart, and soul.
And as an ex-soldier, I believe Shakespeare was a soldier at an early phase of his adulthood.
He knows things like a runner's timed distance as well as secrets of the heart.

 

[Bushman]

I remember years ago that my Dad once told me of the time he was paddled back in elementary school. He was taken into the principal's office, had to pull his pants down to his bare bottom, and paddled with the classic wooden variety. To me, the idea of a child being taken into a room by an adult and forced to de-pants seemed obviously pedophilic in nature regardless of the time period, but my Dad shook it off. "It's how they did it back then," he said. Still, the thought of the amount of times children were probably more than just physically struck by adult during a paddling session unnerved me.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I have little doubt that a significant percentage of those creeps got off on it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Both Havelock Ellis and Alfred Kinsey found ritualized spanking, caning, whipping, and paddling fetishes to be not at all uncommon among the adult males of the Era. Food for thought.

 

[belfastboy]

I’ll forever remember a dinner party a good 25 years or more ago at the home of my brother’s mother-in-law, a weekly event with a cast of regular attendees (relatives, mostly, some of the shirt-tail variety, such as myself) and the occasional guests from outside that circle.

On this particular occasion the outside guest was a retired schoolteacher who had worked with the hostess and her long-ago divorced husband some decades earlier. This fellow had written a highly prescriptive grammar and punctuation guide, which made him something of a minor celebrity in his small world.

It was only my being a guest in another person’s home that spared that fellow a serious thumping. He was a believer in and a promoter of corporal punishments in the schools and told me that my objections were “dramatic.” The kids were “monkeys,” he said. I was sorely tempted to show him what my getting truly “dramatic” looked like.

It was apparent that he had grown accustomed to people deferring to him. It’s an occupational hazard among cops and schoolteachers and others in positions of authority. It’s beyond annoying.

He’s been dead a decade or longer. My only regret on learning of his demise was knowing that I had lost forever the pleasure of killing the worthless POS myself.

In my junior high school years Grades, 7,8,9 we were animals or a half step up. We delighted in tormenting our teachers and we drove a few of them to quit the profession. Woe be to the substitute especially if they were young and inexperienced...a moment of fluster was blood in the water. In the 9th grade getting the strap became epidemic (or the pointer if you were Mr Chapin. the French teacher) but being boys we turned it into a competition to see who could rack up the most strappings by years end. I was well down the list with something like 8 or 9 times...usually 4 to 5 whacks on each hand each time.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Sounds like the adults got exactly what they bargained for.