I do not understand the current-day animosity toward the use of a wooden paddle to instill discipline. Typically, in the first half of the 20th century, if a student found himself in trouble as a result of an encounter with a teacher, he knew he would be in far worse trouble when he returned home. He knew that whatever punishment he might have experienced at school, it would be at least twice as bad from his dad – and most kids had dads back then.

I am now 79. I lived about one mile from the elementary school I attended. I still recall the day, when I was in the fourth grade, that I was about 30 minutes late arriving because I dawdled along the way. A lady principal verbally lambasted me and gave me five whacks across my rear. That was the last day I was ever late to school.

Nearly every male of my generation will cite a similar tale regarding school experiences.

In 1947, I did my cadet teaching in mathematics at Rogers High School. My master teacher was a gentleman – literally a gentle man – who was considered the “Mr. Chips” at Rogers. When a student, always the boys back then, got out of line in Mr. Doolittle’s class, he was given a choice of a hack or 30 minutes after school. I never once saw a boy choose the latter.

After the hack, the boy signed the paddle. To the boys, it was memorable to have been able to say your name was on that paddle.

When I look back upon my teen and preteen years, there were two primary things that kept me on the straight and narrow. First was the concern over how upset my mother would have been had I experienced trouble that would have caused her to feel shame.

The second was old-fashioned fear that I might get caught and physical punishment might be administered. Right or wrong, they kept me straight.

When my youngest daughter, now 52, was 7, I caught her smoking out in the garage in the family car. It was one of the few times in her life that I paddled her butt. To this day, she does not smoke.

There is a saying in education as it exists today: “Teachers are afraid of their principals. Principals are afraid of the superintendent. The superintendent is afraid of the school board. The school board is afraid of parents. Parents are afraid of their children. And students are afraid of no one.”

I do not favor brutalizing a student for a serious misbehavior. But I do know that the greater the impressions imposed by a paddle on a student’s posterior, the longer lasting will be the impression on the brain.