| Yes, I've turned out reasonably literate and productive, but my resentment for the "swift punishment" they doled out caused an emotional rift between me and my mother that lasted years. While still in grade school, and one of the shyest, quietest kids in class, and while getting top honours in the school for three years running, I had, at one point, an insane person as a gym instructor. While playing team sports, no one was allowed to speak unless so allowed by him. If anyone did speak, they were lined up at the end of class and given the strap. Have you ever tried to play a team sport in silence? I, quiet and shy though I was, got the strap three times. Oh, by the way, if you didn't say thank you after the first lick, you got another, and so on, and so on... When I complained to my parents, my mother said he must have had a reason. Not my father, though - he, along with many other parents, stormed the principal's office. The maniac was out within three months. Yes, I know, not a typical example, but it was swift Catholic school justice. Sort of shoot first, decide on innocence later. |
