Coach $$ wrote:
We had a 5th grade teacher who used to punish us with a wooden paddle. It hurt. At the end of the year we all signed it. Looking back, the teacher's behavior was weird. But that's how things were in the early 70s. Did it scar me? No. But was it right? No way.
I got "pops" with a paddle for poor behavior in the '80s. I couldn't tell you what supposedly terrible thing I did or what the lesson was. Thoughtful conversation probably would have been way more effective. It didn't scar me but I'll never forget it. Of course, growing up my folks spanked me and with more than just a hand. It was just the way they knew from when they grew up. Probably warped our relationship, I'm sure I would need therapy to find peace with it. I just know I couldn't wait to get away from them after I turned 18, I was looking for any avenue out. At any rate, this coach is f*cked up and I don't know how any parent or school administrator could trust him to not act on that physically violent impulse ever again, even with a solemn pledge. It simply doesn't work that way.