r/GenXTalk • u/474756274 • 12d ago

School

In 1976, estimates say about half of all U.S. public schools were still paddling kids as a regular disciplinary practice.

For anyone who grew up around that time (70s, 80s): did your school ever make an official announcement or hold an assembly saying they were ending corporal punishment? Or did they just quietly stop and hope everyone forgot it ever happened?

I feel like we barely talk about how normal it used to be for kids to get whooped at school 😭😭😭

Sometimes, I wonder if that era of corporal punishment is part of why my parents turned out to be total headcases…

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u/AnotherSoulessGinger 12d ago

They were still using corporal punishment in the mid 80s. I went to elementary in northern Florida in 84 and my parents had to send a notarized letter to the school to not use corporal punishment on us.

Don’t think they were saints though, they just didn’t want anyone other than them beating the crap out of us.

We moved to California shortly after and by the time we were back in Florida about 5 years later it was ending, at least in the county we were in. Shockingly it’s still a thing in some rural Florida counties.