The Board of Education

"It used to take me all vacation to grow a new hide in place of the one they flogged off me during school term."  ~Mark Twain 

Lucky for me I never got spanked in school.  I don't think my wife did either.  I did however, get plenty of them at home.  Corporal punishment was lawful, and in full use when I grew up.  No lawsuits, and no parents spewing crap about their kid's rights being violated for getting a whooping after acting a fool.  My parents, I'm sure, were okay with me getting a tail whooping at school if it became necessary.  Luckily, I never tested that.

Isn't that how it goes though?  A kid acts like a thug, and say, steals something from a classmate.  The kid gets caught.  In my school days, that was an automatic tail beating with the proverbial "board of education."  It was a large wooden paddle with tape around the handle for grip, and holes drilled along the board.  Bad stuff folks.  I witnessed the carnage of Principal Baccus' whoopings by seeing my classmates come back to class with split pants.  I remember that beating well.  That kid actually came back with the back of his pants split right up the middle.

Back then, parents expected their children to get spanked at school if they acted a fool.  Then, after school, when dad got home...the beatings would begin again.

Today however, that would be viewed as abuse and some parent somewhere would be filing lawsuits against everyone from the teacher to the Pope.  Parents would argue that their little angel, little Johnny, would never steal (even though he was caught with the contraband).  They would say, "No...no...he doesn't deserve that."  "He's a good boy blah blah blah."  My response...yes, yes he does.

I know of a kid that was caught with marijuana, in his shoe, on campus.  The kid got arrested, as he should have.  I mean, he sneaked dope into school, was sharing with other dopers, and got caught.  His parents were outraged.  Outraged at the fact he was using drugs?   No.  Not at the fact he was using dope on campus...but that he was arrested!  They were angry their child was subject to search by school officials (perfectly legal by the way), who promptly called the police when they fond his stash.  They argued his rights had been violated.  WHAT?  I couldn't believe it.  Here's my issue...deal with the fact your kid smokes dope.  Deal with his "puff puff, pass" mentality.  Being arrested should have been the least of his worries.  If it were me, I would have been begging to stay in jail to spare myself the much deserved beating at home.  
   
So what have we learned here today?  More school whoopings!  Bring back the original "board of education."