Protecting the Free-Range Kid

[Kazmyr]

Indeed, I was pretty much non stop trouble, from grade one until I dropped out of school to join the army, was only Her Majesty the Queen, who could bring Danger Smitty to heel, and still is really.

I was right about those teachers though, wasn't long before they were slapping us, then punching us, then kicking us, what a teacher could get away with, in the age of free reign, would get them locked in the penitentiary now, for a very long stay indeed.

Hell, even a stern chewing out and some pushups as discipline for malfeasance will get you in trouble nowadays, as I unfortunately have found out.

[Smitty-48]

Indeed, I was pretty much non stop trouble, from grade one until I dropped out of school to join the army, was only Her Majesty the Queen, who could bring Danger Smitty to heel, and still is really.

I was right about those teachers though, wasn't long before they were slapping us, then punching us, then kicking us, what a teacher could get away with, in the age of free reign, would get them locked in the penitentiary now, for a very long stay indeed.

Hell, even a stern chewing out and some pushups as discipline for malfeasance will get you in trouble nowadays, as I unfortunately have found out.

Oh, we had the teachers making us do push ups, but that was small beer compared to being full on punched in the stomach by a grown assed man when you are only eight years old, given the bad example, we of course took it to the schoolyard to emulate, and attacked each other with ferocious intensity, at one point, I started a series of wars with the adjacent school, we were the public school, the preparatory school was across the field, we started out with snowballs in the winter, which quickly became iceballs which drew blood, by the spring, it was sticks and stones and raiding parties on the prowl, until one kid was nearly killed and the police were summoned in force.

[ssu]

Indeed, I was pretty much non stop trouble, from grade one until I dropped out of school to join the army, was only Her Majesty the Queen, who could bring Danger Smitty to heel, and still is really.

I was right about those teachers though, wasn't long before they were slapping us, then punching us, then kicking us, what a teacher could get away with, in the age of free reign, would get them locked in the penitentiary now, for a very long stay indeed.

Yep, the military was made for you.

I couldn't image Smitty as a paper pusher in some office of the Canadian government's welfare state system surrounded with the typical mellow middle-age and overweight female secretaries.

The Smitty-48 Canada never saw:

[ssu]

Thanks for the answers. Today it seems to be a bit different especially in bigger cities.

[Speaker to Animals]

Indeed, I was pretty much non stop trouble, from grade one until I dropped out of school to join the army, was only Her Majesty the Queen, who could bring Danger Smitty to heel, and still is really.

I was right about those teachers though, wasn't long before they were slapping us, then punching us, then kicking us, what a teacher could get away with, in the age of free reign, would get them locked in the penitentiary now, for a very long stay indeed.

Hell, even a stern chewing out and some pushups as discipline for malfeasance will get you in trouble nowadays, as I unfortunately have found out.

Push-ups and pull-ups are and ideal punishment for some boys. Add in some sprints. Get the energy out of them and help them grow a little.

[DrYouth]

My first grade school routinely administered "the strap".
I remember the principal of the school parading it around the classroom to intimidate.

My second grade school had transitioned to a no teacher violence tolerated.

My mother made the mistake of smacking a kid upside the head when she was on schoolyard supervision duty as a parent volunteer at that second school and was asked not to return. She still talks about that with true surprise... the kid had it coming as far as she was concerned.

We wandered all over the big city from age 7-8 years and on. My buddy and I would walk out on the ice of Lake Ontario in winter and all over "the Beaches"... which weren't a classy part of town in that day. We would climb around in construction sites and abandoned lots even an old abandoned factory. Definitely free reign. Whatever trouble you ran into was part of the days adventure. Get home, apply some dressings to the wounds and repeat the next day.

[Smitty-48]

What we found in the military, was focus, a team, and a mission, and as such, remedial PT and the like was not really a punishment, that was more the instructors saying "follow me", they didn't give remedial PT, they led remedial PT from the front, punishment, was to be decried in front of your peers by the chain of command, for having let the team down, that was the fiercest lash of them all.

[MilSpecs]

My first grade school routinely administered "the strap".

The nuns used to use a ruler, and often, but the priests and brothers were usually worse because the damage the nuns could do with a ruler was limited (and frankly nothing compared to our fathers). We girls were spared serious damage. A priest knocked my brother out. He got a pretty bad concussion and my mother pulled him out of the school. I was already in high school when this happened so I didn't witness it, but my earliest memory of school was walking down the hall to deliver something to the principal and seeing an elderly nun slam a little boy's head against the wall. I froze in my tracks - I thought she killed him.

[Smitty-48]

My father employed the whip of sarcasm, far more biting than any strap, better to be strapped and be done with it, then to ride home after every hockey game, under the critique of the coach who never lets up.

Didn't even know what positive reinforcement was, until it was administered by the Sargeant-Majors of the Crown. Far more frightening than my father, but far better leaders none the less.

[MilSpecs]

My father employed the whip of sarcasm, far more biting than any strap, better to be strapped and be done with it, then to ride home after every hockey game, under the critique of the coach who never lets up.

And this is why I didn't want my husband coaching our kids.