Thought of the Day

[mikephillips]

When my middle niece's family moved to the Ithaca NY area years ago my niece was in 3rd grade. Seems she was only kid that had learned cursive, got it in her prior school. And when she turned in something written in it the teacher told her to stop and never use it again since they didn't allow a kid to use or know something the rest didn't, and they had stopped using it a couple years before. I gather they started teaching it again a couple years after that point since they found that being able to read it, and to actually sign your name, was still important. Gee, who woulda thought.....

 

[Basil]

When my middle niece's family moved to the Ithaca NY area years ago my niece was in 3rd grade. Seems she was only kid that had learned cursive, got it in her prior school. And when she turned in something written in it the teacher told her to stop and never use it again since they didn't allow a kid to use or know something the rest didn't, and they had stopped using it a couple years before. I gather they started teaching it again a couple years after that point since they found that being able to read it, and to actually sign your name, was still important. Gee, who woulda thought.....

Doing away with Cursive was among the really dumb things our education system has done.

 

[equiprx]

Doing away with Cursive was among the really dumb things our education system has done.

Back in the 1950s our nuns taught the Palmer Method, and used the ruler on the hands if you got it wrong.
I never got it, despite all the beatings and being locked in a closet, and I still don't use it.

 

[Basil]

Back in the 1950s our nuns taught the Palmer Method, and used the ruler on the hands if you got it wrong.
I never got it, despite all the beatings and being locked in a closet, and I still don't use it.

My nuns never engage in punishment like that, but I never was great at it. I can write in cursive but it looks like a doctor’s handwriting

 

[equiprx]

My nuns never engage in punishment like that, but I never was great at it. I can write in cursive but it looks like a doctor’s handwriting

I suspect you were educated after such punishment was banned.
They even made me repeat 2nd grade.

 

[Basil]

I suspect you were educated after such punishment was banned.
They even made me repeat 2nd grade.

I think it wasn't banned, I just had some nicer nuns. I did get paddled a couple time, but I deserved it! (early 1960s)

 

[mikephillips]

Ah the subject of paddling. I didn't go to Catholic school but back in the 60s and into the 70s nearly all the male teachers where I went had their own custom paddles, usually about 3ft long, like a cricket bat. Decorated with decals and names considered "high used" students. I never caught one but you could hear it through the building when someone was being corrected in the hall. From the sound we all called it getting "cracked"..

 

[equiprx]

Ah the subject of paddling. I didn't go to Catholic school but back in the 60s and into the 70s nearly all the male teachers where I went had their own custom paddles, usually about 3ft long, like a cricket bat. Decorated with decals and names considered "high used" students. I never caught one but you could hear it through the building when someone was being corrected in the hall. From the sound we all called it getting "cracked"..

I still feel that the practice is/was disgusting.
My parents were also generous with painful punishment, but never told me how to be good.
I don't think it made me a better person, in fact I would smack around my younger brother when he taunted me.
He probably still hates me for treating him that way but I learned that was the way to act.
My classmates even beat me up because I was the smallest kid in the class.