got sent so much that they got bored after a while and figured no beating was gonna change our ways .. :)


See ya'll little bad children is grow up to be bad adults :sailing:

I grew up in the catholic school system straight up to my senior year of high school. I don't recall any "pick you stick stuff", but I remember the most the teachers would use in the primary school is a short ruler......never used for measuring I assure you.


we sometimes had to go out and pick our own switch from one of the trees in the yard, and if the nun didn't think it was big enough you got the full on cane from the classroom.

i'm a catholic school survivor through 9th grade/form 2, but happily escaped to a non-beating academic environment through the end of high school. my parents never hit me in my face, so i could never understand why nuns were "allowed" to.

(yes, i hit the bishop back when he slapped me during confirmation, as no one warned me that would happen in the middle of church, either. my rosary beads spilt over the altar, and my legend was set for life :)).

Yep we are a christian nation
We teach love and forgiveness at the end of a stick.

I remember my neice was sent to the office an eraned for the teacher or something like that. She is a sickly child and had a letter on file that she was not to be touched if she caused trouble. A list of adults were given to be called starting with he Mom if she was causing trouble.

Anyway she went to the office and the (so called) dean or disipline took her into his office beat her and sent her back to class. Never asking her once what she was there for and not listening to her objections.

The man still has not apoligised to the child to this day. I don't think he is at the school any more.

not all saying that this is right, but where HAVE y'all been all of these years? catholic and religious schools are notorious for their brand of corporal "pick your stick" punishment ... at the catholic elementary school here we used to get hit so bad on our hands that our fingers would swell up.
after a few too many of these episodes, my father finally came to the school and warned the priest that if he hit me that bad again, he'd have a dislocated shoulder.
Did your Father ever ask the Priest, or you, why you got corporal punishment so often?

Did your Father ever ask the Priest, or you, why you got corporal punishment so often?


sure did. the explanation was pretty mind-blowing, especially for my non-catholic father, but we had limited schooling options at the time.

anyway, my fifth and sixth grade group (our class was split into groups) was a small group of skinny motivated bookworms (mostly girls), and for six months straight (5th grade) our group consistently won the weekly history and news trivia contests.

we loved reading, we were physically smaller than our classmates, we stayed out of trouble after school ... and it showed. we were so happy to be good at something (we were lost causes on the ball field), we didn't gloat, and we helped the other students in our class after school (i was a reading tutor, for example).

our local priest got it into his head that we needed to be brought down a notch so as to not become arrogant over our academic excellence. hence the caning. the first few times we sucked it up so as to not be seen as a bunch of whiners to the other students, but the time that i got hit so hard that my left hand (my drawing and writing side) swelled up so bad that i couldn't use it, we decided that we had had enough ... and i told my father.

my father was calm when he spoke to the priest as the priest offered his explanation, and insisted that three of my girlfriends and me stay in the room while they had their discussion. news travels fast in our small community, and as it turned out, several of the other parents had similar complaints about the priest. he was soon transferred to another parish on another island.

sure did. the explanation was pretty mind-blowing, especially for my non-catholic father, but we had limited schooling options at the time.

anyway, my fifth and sixth grade group (our class was split into groups) was a small group of skinny motivated bookworms (mostly girls), and for six months straight (5th grade) our group consistently won the weekly history and news trivia contests.

we loved reading, we were physically smaller than our classmates, we stayed out of trouble after school ... and it showed. we were so happy to be good at something (we were lost causes on the ball field), we didn't gloat, and we helped the other students in our class after school (i was a reading tutor, for example).

our local priest got it into his head that we needed to be brought down a notch so as to not become arrogant over our academic excellence. hence the caning. the first few times we sucked it up so as to not be seen as a bunch of whiners to the other students, but the time that i got hit so hard that my left hand (my drawing and writing side) swelled up so bad that i couldn't use it, we decided that we had had enough ... and i told my father.

my father was calm when he spoke to the priest as the priest offered his explanation, and insisted that three of my girlfriends and me stay in the room while they had their discussion.


I remember an incident in eighth grade. I arrived at school late and met my class lined up outside The Principal's office. I was told by some person from the office to join the end of the line. I did. When we were marched in we each received a cut hip and demerit for some infraction which occured before I arrived.

I was always a little troublesome in school but very careful to stay just inside the lines. That demerit was my third which led to a green card which had to be signed by every subject teacher for the day, then taken home, signed and returned each day for a week. That single demerit (unearned mind you) led to an escalating trend of demerits and green cards throughout eighth, ninth and tenth grades.

I didn't care about the cut hip when I realized I was getting a green card.

....our local priest got it into his head that we needed to be brought down a notch so as to not become arrogant over our academic excellence. hence the caning....
Strange! I am not doubting you but in my teaching experience no one was caned for being too smart! :dgi: I am sure there was something else.

Strange! I am not doubting you but in my teaching experience no one was caned for being too smart! :dgi: I am sure there was something else.


we had all sorts of theories, none of which were ever substantiated :footmouth ... that our group was targeted because i was white (i was the only white person in the class, and one of three in the entire school), and the white priest didn't want to be seen as possibly currying favour.

our fave theory was that he was secretly sweet on the boy students in the rest of the class, and wanted to thrash the one mostly-girl group :cutie: ... but we were fifth grade analysts on the job! who knows? but he did like to hit, and the other parents complaining had students in the one higher class than ours, grade six.

we had all sorts of theories, none of which were ever substantiated :footmouth ... that our group was targeted because i was white (i was the only white person in the class, and one of three in the entire school), and the white priest didn't want to be seen as possibly currying favour.
our fave theory was that he was secretly sweet on the boy students in the rest of the class, and wanted to thrash the one mostly-girl group :cutie: ... but we were fifth grade analysts on the job! who knows? but he did like to hit, and the other parents complaining had students in the one higher class than ours, grade six.

Islandgyal you conchie joe?:jawdroop:

I remember an incident in eighth grade. I arrived at school late and met my class lined up outside The Principal's office. I was told by some person from the office to join the end of the line. I did. When we were marched in we each received a cut hip and demerit for some infraction which occured before I arrived.
I was always a little troublesome in school but very careful to stay just inside the lines. That demerit was my third which led to a green card which had to be signed by every subject teacher for the day, then taken home, signed and returned each day for a week. That single demerit (unearned mind you) led to an escalating trend of demerits and green cards throughout eighth, ninth and tenth grades.
I didn't care about the cut hip when I realized I was getting a green card.


You went to QC?

You went to QC?


Yep.

Islandgyal you conchie joe?:jawdroop:


white, but not around long enough to qualify as conchy joe ... my family came from scotland to the bahamas in the early 1900s. no eleutheran adventurers or loyalist forebears to boast of :).

you seem surprised?

I see everyone ignores Vicky now. This is a positive develoment.
I think that child abuse is wrong. And I think that beating a child half to death, is very very wrong and we should try to make efforts to protect our children.

There is a very small minority of people, who feel this type of punishment for children is ok!
This is not ok.

white, but not around long enough to qualify as conchy joe ... my family came from scotland to the bahamas in the early 1900s. no eleutheran adventurers or loyalist forebears to boast of :).
you seem surprised?
Mussi forget you said you was a white lady.

If a child is being excessively unruly, I say call their parents to come and remove them off school property. Do not allow them back into the classroom. I feel sorry for our educators who have to deal with the stress of unruly kids, on top of having to teach. Put the buggers out, and you will be surprised at how quickly the attitudes of many lazy parents will change when they realize their child has been put out of school and may not be able to return.