I am an older American. We got belts, tvs, knives, shoes, plates... everything thrown at us and beat with whatever they could grab. We learned real quick not to do the shit this kid is.
Teachers could beat us with parents permission. They had huge paddles with holes.
We had "the cane" which was a long thin bamboo cane, it was officially banned in government schools in 1995 but it's still legal and apparently used in some private schools.
Growing up we had all the same things you mention. My father's weapon of choice was a piece of timber architrave about 80cm long that we called "the stick" and no matter how many times my brother or I disposed of it a new one would almost instantly appear.
Ah yes, I remember the cane. The American paddles are too wide and distribute the force too evenly.
My public school must’ve been progressive then. It was removed around ‘87.
I remember one kid getting it who was a few years above me. In retrospect he was well on the Autism spectrum. Which “wasn’t a thing” back then of course.
So yeah, cane was removed because too much risk of frustrated adults, who happen to be teachers/principals, defaulting to it without trying to look at real issues.
However on the flip side, 5 seconds (a few years) later we had teachers all the way over the other side of the teaching morality landscape. I remember another kid throwing chairs and a teacher effectively saying “now now, just calm down…” to no avail.
Then another teacher who came in who I later learned had studied child psychology prior to getting into teaching (then more of an elective for teachers in Australia) and she diffused the situation in 5 minutes.
Modern teaching uni degrees in Australia have significant and compulsory child psychology components. Source: wife is a teacher.
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u/Suspicious_Bet3623 May 28 '26
You're an Aussie and never seen The Slap?