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Brandon Ellrich's avatar

I didn't witness this in my school, but I wouldn't be surprised if it came from a lived experience. Teachers (and parents) often used intimidation to invoke fear rather than respect.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

I'm starting to get a better picture of how extreme my upbringing was. It has only taken 50 years! American society fails to address how hostile and brutal rural areas actually are. Thanks for the comment!

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Jonathan Harvey's avatar

The very worst school system I was in was during my final year in a suburb of Dallas, Texas (7th grade). It has been preceded by one year in Oxford, England, easily the happiest year of my childhood. The contrast between the two was astonishing, breathtaking, stupefying. In Dallas, No corporal punishment but a lot of obvious teacher ignorance and evasive answers. It seemed like a little red schoolhouse even if it was in a suburb,

Oxford is a classic example of a town which is politically quite progressive, but culturally conservative.

What I eventually came to see as the difference between Oxford and Dallas, was the Oxford embodied the conservatism of enabling a tree to put down deep roots, while Dallas was the conservatism of gratuitously amputating the limbs and branches of the tree for no good reason.

Disclosure: 5 years before my final year in Dallas, I was there (age 8) during the assassination of JFK.

2 months later, I lost an election for homeroom President to John Hinckley Jr, who 19 years later would fail attempting to shoot Ronald Reagan.

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Teri Gelini's avatar

Wow! That must have been a shock to you or were you not suprised because of the type of education there had been

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cindy ramirez's avatar

this story brought back a memory from my childhood where a teacher taped a kid with masking tape to his chair for being noisy and unruly. i remember the kid's name was Byron.

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Walter Rhein's avatar

These things happened. We're made to pretend like they didn't but it's true.

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Tracy Rae's avatar

When I was in 2nd grade in WV, circa 1969, the teacher duct taped a girl named Jeannie to her desk and then duct taped her mouth shut. I'm 63 & still remember the tears rolling down her face over the tape and dripping from her face. I don't recall even telling my mom about it at the end of the day, and the teacher retired many years later "with honor."😱 I wish 7 year old me had stood up to that witch and helped my friend that day.😭

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Debra Martin's avatar

I came from a small town in upstate Ny.

I've seen a 5th grade teacher throw a kid and his desk against the wall. Another male teacher smash a kids head into a desk.

My second grade female teacher would grab your face and squeeze it making you stare into her hate filled eyes.

One kid had a emotional breakdown and removed forcibly, never recall seeing him again.

You didn't go home and complain, it was excepted as discipline back then.

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Marsha Rose's avatar

My third grade teacher actually sat on Ricky Walters to get him to behave. I remember thinking that she was going to squish him permanently. Scared me to death.

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