To my mind, there’s no doubt that the teachers of my own schooldays seemed to have an interest in whether the kids they taught got spankings at home – actually, to be more precise (and since about every kid in those days got sore bottoms at home), how they got spanked and by whom.
I remember one such conversation that took place when I was eight in the fall of 1966 and in the third grade. Our teacher was a very attractive lady in her early 20s called Miss Harrington, who was not that long out of teacher training college.
She was really nice, with a warm personality – but, like virtually all teachers back then, she was also very strict when she had to be.
Teachers were allowed to use corporal punishment in my school, although it was quite informal and they tended to improvise in how they administered it!
One teacher, Mrs Reeves, brought in her own ping pong paddle – and used it liberally on young bottoms! Another, Mrs Wilson, kept a wooden ruler for the job – it was seldom used but quite an effective deterrent.
Mrs Travis, the principal, actually had a proper spanking paddle – an implement greatly feared by every kid in the school. Although she was always fair, Mrs Travis was a strict disciplinarian, and being sent to her office for a paddling was definitely our school’s ‘nuclear option’. I made two visits in my time and both occasions were extremely memorable.
However, those are perhaps stories for another time. Miss Harrington, by contrast, spanked only using her hand – usually just one or two swats to a fully clothed behind. I experienced this on three occasions – it stung a little but was nothing very remarkable to a boy used to getting it on the bare bottom from mom or dad!
For slightly more serious misdemeanours (or repeat offences), Miss Harrington would make things a little more formal – she would put the offender over her knee and give them about half a dozen swats on their bottom.
Again, it was no big deal really – it would sting and smart a little but the recipient’s face would be redder with embarrassment than their bottom was through spanking.
This was more so for the girls, as although these spankings were on the clothed bottom, Miss Harrington would lift skirts and dresses and smack the seats of their panties. I presume this was a practical necessity, but nevertheless us boys always had an extra layer of protection for our bottoms. Overall, though, these punishments were designed more to shame than to really hurt.
When I had gone up into fourth grade, there was apparently an incident in Miss Harrington’s class when a boy named Edward was really (I mean extremely) rude to her.
From the story that went around the school, I gather that Miss Harrington ordered everyone in the classroom to stand outside in the corridor while she dealt with Edward. Moments later, the unmistakeable sound of a bare bottom spanking was ringing out into the corridor. Plenty of children got it that way at home and there would be no mistaking the sound of crisp smacks connecting with unprotected flesh, nor the screaming and howling coming from the unfortunate child.
Miss Harrington’s reputation as a disciplinarian was cemented a great deal by that one memorable event. I feel pretty sure that baring a child’s bottom to spank them was not, strictly speaking, within the bounds of the school’s disciplinary code, but certainly no action was taken against the teacher.
You also have to remember that back in the day, what was officially allowed in schools and what actually happened were often very different things. There was a much more relaxed attitude to corporal punishment back then, and even the children who overheard Edward’s spanking were largely of the opinion that he deserved every slap.
That said, looking back I can’t but wonder whether Miss Harrington had a spanking fetish, or at least proclivities in that direction.
One autumn afternoon back in 1966, Miss Harrington put a over her knee and applied six swats to her pantie-covered bottom. The girl, named Debbie, had already ignored several warnings to stop chatting and whispering.
Having administered this punishment, to our surprise Miss Harrington started a conversation among us about spanking. She wanted to know how many of us got spanked at home, and precisely how.
“How many of you get your bare behinds spanked?” she demanded. Most of us, some with quite red faces, put up our hands. A few others were too embarrassed entirely to admit they got spanked that way, though I knew from playground hearsay that they did.
Miss Harrington turned to those with their hands still down. “Come on, don’t be shy,” she said, “be honest about it! I got it on the bare bottom too when I was growing up, from my mom and stepdaddy.”
She even suggested that we do a class survey about spanking in the home but sadly this project never materialized. For me, the enthusiastic and intense nature of the discussion initiated by Miss Harrington, immediately after spanking Debbie, certainly pointed to a fetish.
Having said that, going on my experience of so many adults in those days, Miss Harrington was not that unusual. I think a lot of adults found spanking, and the very thought of it, exciting and sexually arousing. Some of our other teachers would also sometimes talk about the subject – albeit not with quite the same eagerness and enthusiasm of Miss Harrington!
Contributor: Simon