If given a choice of detention or paddling...

"The paddle was 2 inches thick"

That is a club, not a paddle.

When I went to school mid 70’s -1986. In Kentucky our school district allowed padding . K-10 grade if parent signed a consent form at the beginning of the year.. 11 grade Junior year it was up to the student 12 grade senior year padding was exempt. So yes I would take the 5 licks with the paddle

@Mustanng95 Interesting that the student could choose at grade 11. Any idea of how many did?

My school didn't use corporal punishment, but I'd have taken a detention over it back then. Now my views would be different 😃

The males were given the choice of swats or detention for infractions. There were never guys in the detention hall. The girls were given no option, they only got D-Hall. If a guy ever went to D-Hall, it was a big deal in a negative way. We always took the swats…

I would have taken the swats but then I might have regretted it. lol. An hour of detention every day for a week would have sounded horrible dompared to getting it quickly over with in a matter of a couple minutes tops. Denise

Although we didn’t have the paddle, we had spanking or the slipper. Would take a spanking or the slipper any day as at least it would be over and done with.

Likewise, here in England there was no paddling, but we had the slipper (plimsoll) and the cane.

I would definitely have taken having my bottom warmed up all hot and stingy with the slipper instead of a detention.

The cane I'm not quite so sure about. If it were going to be two or three crisp strokes across my naughty wriggly bottom, I'd probably have taken it. Six of the best? I'd've had serious reservations.

But you know what? Given the fact that ever since I was six years old I'd been intensely curious (as well as absolutely terrified) as to what being caned at school felt like, there's little doubt that eventually, at some point, I would have volunteered to Bend Over.

I always went with the paddling. I would have had to explain why I was late to my parents if I chose detention.

When I was in school (1961 - 1973), there was not a choice of paddling or detention. If there had been, I think I would have taken the licks. Three was the maximum they could give us and that was over clothes. I was paddled 4 times in school and my interest has never been being on the receiving end. While it stung quite a bit, I never remember the pain being unbearable.

Paddling, always.

At school I was in trouble with a friend. We were given the choice of detention or 1 stroke of the cane, with the morning to decide, then report to the Detention Teacher with our decision.

A difficult one, but we decided to have the cane, since it was only 1 stroke. I had never had the cane, so was a little curious to know what it was like. Also taking detention seemed a bit cowardly.

So we went to the teacher with our decision. He was quite matter of fact about it. In turn he told us to bend over his desk, he tapped my bottom a few times with his cane, as though taking aim, then brought it down with a loud crack, It certainly stung! I wouldn't have wanted anymore! But I had no detention and had my first taste of the cane!

Paddling did not occur when I was in school. Detention was common, but depending on the infraction someone might be sent to the head coach and made to run laps. Fortunately, I never encountered that.

Hypothetically, it would entirely depend on the sex of the person that was going to paddle me. If it was a female then absolutely, paddle away. If it was to be a male then I’d probably pick the detention.

By the time we moved to Texas the vast majority of schools had gotten rid of paddling although it was still legally on the books for awhile as far as I know. Where I grew up they had a policy that your parents could come and paddle you themselves if you had been sent to the office, and if that’s what they wanted to do but I never heard of this happening. I also never saw any sort of paddles anywhere in the schools.