[gramie]

When I was a volunteer in Africa, my school's English teacher was furious because none of the students in his class had done the homework. His solution: to bring them into the staff room one by one, have them hold their hands in a "chef's kiss", fingertips pointing up. He then whacked their fingertips ten times with a short wooden rod (laughing as he delivered the final blow, "and one for Caesar!).

These were tough, hardworking teenagers, but very few of them were not in tears when they stumbled out of the room.

The next day we found out that he had forgotten to assign the homework.

So why should corporal punishment ever be considered appropriate?

(I'm not arguing with you, but agreeing with you.)

[Der_Einzige]

Behavior like this is why I unironically have lost the mythos of "teachers are good for society" as default thinking. I get why Mao/Pol Pot/Communists through history lined them up against walls.

Most, even in America, are little tyrants who has entirely far too much power to pick and choose the winners and losers of society. A single bad teacher acts like a whole bucket of crabs pulling down on soon-to-be-succesful youth.

[markdown]

lol, standard practice in schools where I grew up, though not with a wooden rod but the wooden back of the blackboard duster.

[rmwaite]

I don't think this is something to laugh at. Whether or not you think it's necessary or a proper method of punishment, it isn't funny.

[markdown]

It was always funny to us as kids, and we often laughed at the poor bugger who had earned that punishment (and were laughed at when it was us).

Our teachers didn't abuse us like some do in other societies, with extra homework and detention. We new the rules and punishment for breaking them, and made choices accordingly. Wonderful teachers who I remember fondly decades later, though some of them have passed on.