I used the cane and I now wonder if I was right to do so.

@Pfuzylogic Checking on the internet it seems that corporal punishment was legal in schools in Ohio until 2009, over twenty years after I left teaching. So I doubt it.

Doesn't mean I was right to use it, but times change, attitudes change. And some people don't seem to understand that.

Far from being arrested at the time I was doing this, I was actively encouraged to do it by the authorities and it was entirely legal.

@patioratio
I taught High School from 1988-1999 in Indiana. Not only would you have been arrested but they also would have gathered the neighbors up to lynch you.
Admit you were wrong and demonstrate true remorse.

You are actively defending the caning you did in the past and not admitting the perverseness of it.

@Pfuzylogic Interestingly corporal punishment in schools still seems to be legal in Indiana.

It seems rather surprising I haven't heard of any lynchings.

I'm finding it a little difficult to take your hyperbole seriously and you shouldn't need to rely on it if you have any real arguments.

I'm not defending anything. I've been very explicit in saying that I'm questioning what I did.

@patioratio
You just defended your caning.
The students had to be smaller than you or you would be picking yourself off the street beaten up once you got out of school for your arrogance.
It is sick and it is beyond me how you expand and have confidence in your acts.

You were nothing but a bully.

@Pfuzylogic Being honest about what happened is not the same as defending it.

You can call me all the names you like. It says more about you than anybody else.

@patioratio
Again you defend yourself and your caning.
You do realize I hope that corporal punishment doesn’t mean caning.
Can you share how you felt while doing it??

@Pfuzylogic No, I don't defend it. Telling the truth about what happened is not the same as defending something.

It's true that corporal punishment doesn't necessarily meaning caning, but caning was the accepted and legal form of corporal punishment in the school system I taught in. If the law had told me to do it differently I would have. So in my mind and experience, the terms are somewhat interchangeable.

I was also permitted to use a slipper, or my hand to administer punishment but both those methods were barely considered to qualify as corporal punishment and I only very rarely used them because in my experience, when those 'minor' methods were in common use, in a school, useage quickly got of control and started being used for utterly trivial matters. The cane was required to be treated more seriously and so was less prone to - I know you'd regard any use as misuse, but that's the only term I can use. There were rules regarding the cane that in my experience were rarely broken (and I don't believe I ever broke them) but rules regarding slippering and smacking were commonly broken if that was allowed as a standard punishment. So I didn't use those methods much myself as a teacher even when I was allowed to, and once I was a head teacher and had the power to set rules for my staff, I didn't allow those methods at all, except in a handful of very specific situations where there were reasons why I was willing to make exceptions. And I do mean a handful.

As I understand it, in American schools where corporal punishment has been historically used, and where it still is, the paddle is more often used than a cane. I don't see any evidence that a paddle is any less severe than a cane - in fact, I would consider it more likely to cause injury.

How did I feel while doing it? It was a somewhat unpleasant task (far more unpleasant for the child than myself, of course) but it was part of my job. I didn't like a lot of the things I was expected to do as part of my job - caning was one of those things. I did believe I was doing it in the best interests of the child I was punishing in the vast majority of cases, and in the cases where I didn't believe it was necessarily in the best interest of that child, I believed it was in the best interests of other children. I never used the cane in any case where I thought there was any significant risk of causing lasting harm. I may have been wrong in all of those beliefs. But that is what I thought at the time.

I caned quite rarely - I could have probably done it ten time more often than I did. There were schools nearby where I knew that was happening. There were no schools I knew of in my own area where it wasn't used at all, but I certainly would claim I used it less than every other school - but I was the Head of one of the one of the lowest caning schools in the local authority and that was despite my school being seen as a particularly tough one. I avoided using the cane far more often than I would have been considered justified in using it.

@patioratio
I am chatting with a troll!
I ignored your previous.

@Pfuzylogic I'm no troll and I have no idea why you think posting a picture of me suggests I am.

What 'previous' are you talking about? At this point, have a clue what you're going on about.