• slothrop@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Child of the '60s here.
    It’s real; I lived it. Grade school, it was nuns. Beaten up by priests (as well as most of the other teachers) in high school.

    • scytale@piefed.zip
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      3 days ago

      Yeah, my kindergarten teacher didn’t like me using my left hand to write for some reason, so slapped my hand with a ruler. Now I write with my right hand.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      There are still some southern states (because ofc) that legally allow teachers to use corporal punishment at their discretion.

  • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Dude, the nuns at my dad’s elementary school beat him and traumatized him so much that he has PTSD.

    Its pure evil to abuse a child. No surprise that agents of the church took no issue with such evil behaviour.

      • Pringles@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        A friend of mine is also left handed and I only found out when we started a game of darts and he switched hands. Under communism writing with the left hand was not allowed for some reason.

      • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        No worries, they beat my dad in public school for the same thing. My mother told my kindergarten teacher to fuck off when she suggested my left handedness needed to be corrected (in 1989).

  • nocturne@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    It is real. My mother went to an all girls catholic school. She said the wrong answers as well as bad behavior warranted being whacked with a ruler. Things were even worse if you are sinister.

  • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    My mother told me a story about how once my uncle was in school and the teacher told him to go out and cut a switch, which is just a thin stick good for whipping with. He cried, went out and got one, came back, and it turned out it was for someone else. This would have been the 60s or 70s maybe. My mom also mentioned that the typing (typewriter) teacher would smack fingers with a ruler when mistakes were made. This was a public school.

    So yea, definitely a real thing that happened.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Oh yeah, a lot of old Catholics are terrified of nuns for that reason. It was always fun to shock them by saying how my school’s nun was nice. The nuns especially targeted the sin of left handedness

  • AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I don’t know about now, but when my parents were in school it was definitely very common. There is still no law against corporal punishment in private schools in the US, and only 33 out of 50 states have laws against it in their public schools.

  • potoooooooo ✅️@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I went to various Christian schools and had one teacher bend me over her knee and paddle me. But I was already taller/bigger than her. So ironic that I ended up liking short women and spanking. Like, what are the odds!?

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    My dad had his hand smacked and his fingers taped together to force him to write with his right hand. This was in the 1950s in public school in Canada.

    When I was in high school in the 1980s, we had a teacher who threw chalk at us.

    So yeah, it happens.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I was changed from left- to right-handed by the Calgary school board in 1979 or so.

      In secondary school my chem teacher would definitely throw chalk if you weren’t paying attention. It’s better than chalk brushes.

      • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        Wow, neighbours! My dad was in Red Deer. I had a teacher in Edmonton who made fun of me for being left handed.

  • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    When I was in elementary school in the 70s in rural Virginia the teachers would hit you with rulers all the time. The principal had a paddle that resembled a cricket bat that he used.

    I don’t know if schools allow corporal punishment still.

    • swelter_spark@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      My principal had that, too! He kept it hanging on the wall in his office, and students could see it when we walked by. It scared me, but I never saw or heard of him using it on anyone.

      • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        Yeah mine kept it hanging on his wall as well and he would walk around with it sometimes when the buses were leaving.

        I am sure he did all that as a deterrent to prevent bad behavior.

  • m0darn@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Me friend recently told me she was caned (rapped with a ruler to be more specific) on the back of her hand for writing on the chalkboard with her left hand.

    1989 Anglican Sunday school in rural Canada. They never went back, and apparently the place was shutdown not too much later.

  • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    In El Salvador, the nuns were way more hardcore than just using a ruler.

    Once one made my dad kneel on raw rice while holding up books for half an hour.

    My mom has to do something similar too but with salt outside in the sun, but for a bit less time.

  • Otherbarry@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
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    3 days ago

    Catholic schools in the 80’s did not have corporal punishment (certainly not the one I attended for a few years). I think that was something from an earlier time period.

    • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      in my country, corporal punishment in school was abolished by law in 2004. i did elementary in the 80s, but the strap was not used that i can recall. kids were threatened with it, but i don’t think anyone got smacked. however, many people of my parents’ generation have told me that the strap was extremely common. my father in law used to get strapped for speaking german at school, among other things (saskatchewan, 50s / 60s).